Broken Log Pose
by tmb1112
Summary: The Straw Hat crew finds themselves with a broken Log Pose on the middle of the Grand Line. They are forced to wander until they come across a strange island with the Kingdom Hearts characters on it. Destiny Islands. Starts at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts One, and right after Alabasta for One Piece.
1. Chapter 1

Falling.

He was falling. When his eyes opened he saw the sky moving fast past him as he freefell. Everything felt so real, but he knew it wasn't. _This is so vivid,_ his eyes opened further and he kept watching the blue sky fall past him.

A sigh passed through his lips, _I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like is any of this for real, or not?_

The air he was falling through started slowing down and he realized that it was actually water. Sora wasn't worried though, it was just another odd dream he'd been having recently. He turned into a nosedive and sank through the water with closed eyes before feeling something beneath him. _Sand?_

His eyes shot open. The fourteen year old was standing on the edge of the Children's Island. He had yellow shoes with black laces on that were sinking slowly into the soft sand, made wet by the waves. His red shorts matched the red undershirt he had on, but he had a white, short-sleeved jacket over it. On his blue belt were a couple chain links that fell beneath his left pocket.

The kid with the brown spiky hair wondered why he was on the beach. Normally his weird vivid dreams just consisted of him falling and hearing weird voices. He looked up and his eyes widened before he had to shield them from the sun. There was someone standing in the shallow water before him. The taller boy's back was to Sora, but he definitely recognized him.

_Riku!_ He took a step into the water but realized it was receding. He looked both directions, the sound of the waves pulling away confusing him. _What the..._ he looked back out and saw Riku start turning around. Behind the silver haired boy with bigger muscles than Sora, was a huge wave forming out in the sea. 'Riku!' he shouted out but no noise escaped his lips. His friend was wearing a yellow shirt with a black X on the top of it. He had black gloves on and he extended his right hand out to his friend.

Sora gulped, he was scared, but the wave was going to hit Riku. He started stumbling out into the shallow water as he rushed towards his taller friend. _So close,_ he reached out his hand, but before they could touch, the wave crashed down on top of them both. It was like a washing machine as the brown haired boy tumbled around in the water for a few seconds. He clenched his teeth and opened his eyes, seeing Riku floating right in front of him, not looking phased at all by the wave. His friend just held out his hand for Sora to take.

He tried swimming towards the silver haired boy, but the current gained strength and kept pushing him away. _NO!_ He slipped back and started sinking into darkness. The realization that it was all a dream disappeared the moment he saw Riku and he didn't know what was going on anymore. Bubbles lifted all around him but for some reason he didn't need to breath.

Sora kept falling, but he fell right out of the water and splashed up in the air. The sun was now setting instead of having the bright glare of a few seconds ago. The red sunlight cast through the clouds lit up the beach still and he could see another friend waving to him. He shook himself off like a dog and water droplets flew everywhere. He waved to her before he jogged over to the shore.

The boy was now feeling pretty tired after all this and put his hands on his knees, panting hard. _Kairi,_ his smile couldn't get any bigger and all his teeth were showing as he unbent his head to look at her.

The short girl had dark red hair and bangs that partially covered her left eye. Kairi was wearing a white tank top and had a black bracelet on her right wrist. She was giggling at him and he felt his cheeks go a little red before noticing her gaze lift from him. _Huh,_ she looked shocked and he spun around to look up at the sky.

_Whoa,_ he would've thought all the blue falling stars were awesome, but something else caught his eye. There was something falling right above him and coming down fast. _What is that?_ he thought. Kairi gasped as it got closer and they could both make out the silhouette of a person. _Who is,_ the face of the person falling turned his direction and he lowered his bottom lip, _Me?_

Sora felt his feet falling out from under him as he stared up at another version of himself, falling with his eyes closed. It was a perfect replica, the same person in every detail. Kairi saw him falling and looked down. He felt himself drop a hundred feet before opening his eyes and seeing the cute girl right above him, holding out a hand for him to take.

Her face disappeared in a ripple of water and he started to fall again, the sunset in the distance as he dropped through the sky. _Oh right,_ he thought as he fell in the water and kept sinking, _this is just a dream._ He let himself calm back down, despite having a lucid dream, he didn't think anything was wrong.

His feet hit the ground and he took a step forward. There was nothing but darkness around him, but that first step illuminated the black ground and light shone up from it. A mural formed on the floor in the shape of a beautiful woman holding an apple and he stared at it in shock, _Where am I?_

sc

In the sea in the far distance of Destiny Islands, a pirate ship was sailing through the waves. A few of its seven members sat at the edge looking off in the distance.

They each sighed, "I miss Vivi." Chopper said. The small shape-shifting reindeer was sniffling and trying to hold in tears as he thought of their friend they just left behind. She had saved her country with their help, but decided to stay behind as a princess instead of a pirate.

"We do too," Nami, Usopp, and Sanji said sadly as they looked off into the distance as well.

"Cheer up," the newest member of their crew said from the lounge chair she was reading on. She held out a hand and some arms appeared under Usopp and Chopper, tickling them. Sanji heard her voice and the blonde chef turned around and swirled on his feet as he ran over to her and pronounced her beauty.

Nami had been bought by the tall black haired woman, but there was still one member of the crew left who still gave her suspicious looks whenever he passed by. Zoro gave her a look that said, 'I'm watching you,' and then walked over to his captain who was sitting on the head of their lamb figurehead. The Going Merry sailed smoothly across the water and the green haired swordsman called out, "See anything Luffy?"

"No," the usually cheerful captain replied and turned. Monkey D. Luffy wore his signature straw hat with pride as he jumped back to the deck of the ship and ran over to the still gloomy navigator. Nami was the only one not impressed by Robin and still stared off the stern of the ship, missing her best friend with blue hair. "Hey Nami, want to play tag?"

He thought he could cheer her up, and although a kind gesture, she turned and growled at him. "No!" she said sternly, hoping he would drop it.

"Come on," he pleaded. It would be easy to get Usopp or Chopper to play, and he could probably trick Zoro into joining as well, but Nami never wanted to play with him and he knew it would cheer her up. "Here, I'll be it first," he offered and she stood up fast, turning to yell at him some more, "YOU'RE IT!" he pushed his hand forward and hit her in the shoulder.

The rubber man didn't know his own strength and knocked the orange haired woman over. Nami caught herself with her hands but heard a loud cracking sound. A few others heard it as well and looked her direction, only to see the navigator hold up her wrist and stare at the Log Pose. She sighed in relief as the only damage was a small crack.

Then it shattered.

Everyone, including the calm archaeologist who just joined the crew, dropped their jaws and stared at the broken Log Pose as the needle dropped. "Uh oh," Luffy said.

"No," Nami whispered, staring at the object, "no, no, no, no," her teeth turned razor sharp and she grabbed the captain by the collar of his unbuttoned red shirt. "Look what you did! We're out in the Grand Line without a Log Pose! What do we do now!?" Her panic spread and Usopp and Chopper started running around in a panic.

Robin stood up and walked over to them, taking one look at the device and then stating, "It's irreparable." Usopp was just opening his mouth to offer fixing it, and he shut it just as fast before running around like an idiot again.

"It'll be alright," Luffy said.

"What are you basing that on!?" Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all screamed at him.

"Nami," Zoro said calmly, looking bored by all of this. "You still have the Eternal Pose to Alabasta. We can just go back and buy a new Log Pose." He stared at her for a few seconds as sweat started dripping down her face and now he was the one to yell with shark teeth. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"Don't yell at Nami-san!" Sanji shouted back at him and got in his face.

The younger woman on the ship scratched her head sheepishly and muttered, "I sold it." Everyone stared at her in surprise and a few in anger. "I didn't think we'd be going back there any time soon. I didn't think this idiot would break the Log Pose!" She grabbed Luffy by the cheek and stretched him as he apologized again, now with a large red bump on his head.

They all saw how she turned that around back to Luffy, but they were still trying to keep calm. "Alright," Zoro started, taking command of the situation, "we are out on the Grand Line without a Log Pose. It will be difficult to navigate, so what we have to do is just wait for a passing ship and get theirs." The others looked at him with shocked expressions except for Robin. "We're pirates! And if they're good people we can just ask to come with them to the next island they're going to."

"Excellent idea Swordsman-san," Nico Robin complimented and he smirked. Sanji was fuming that she was praising him and not her.

"We should be stocked up with food for over a month, so as long as we don't let Luffy eat all our supplies..." the swordsman saw the blue tint fall over Sanji's face and he ran up to the chef in the suit, grabbing him by the front, "Got something to say?" He asked and the man pushed him away before gaining his composure.

"About the food," Sanji started and they all stared at him in horror, especially Luffy. "The prices in Alubarna were too high, and King Cobra said that the next island we were heading to had an abundance of free food, and that it was only three days away. So," he hesitated and looked around, "we only have about a week's supply of food left," they all looked horrified, except for Zoro who was pissed, "maybe less."

The chef pulled out a cigarette and lit it, calming his nerves.

"You messed up," Usopp shouted and pointed at Sanji, Nami, and Luffy. All of them bowed their heads and said 'I'm sorry' before Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper shouted that sorry wasn't good enough.

"So what do we do?" Robin asked, the only calm one in the situation. _Maybe I got on the wrong ship after all._

"Simple," Luffy said with a grin and they all looked at him, "we have to find an island. Nami, full speed ahead!"

"We don't know where ahead goes!" she shouted back at him.

"Doesn't matter. We won't get anywhere just sitting here and arguing will we?" They all stared at the captain, who was making sense oddly enough.

The navigator sighed, _we just took down a Shichibukai, this won't stop us._ "Zoro release the sails, Usopp take the helm," the others started getting to work and the ship became as lively as ever with their new goal to find the next island. _Nothing can stop us,_ she thought with a smirk and looked up in the sky, sensing no storms ahead of them and relaxing.

Robin looked around at all of them with a small smile on her face. She didn't know what it was, but despite the horrible situation they found themselves in, everyone seemed to stay in high spirits. She liked that. The woman smiled at Zoro who grinned back, remembering her siding with him earlier. He suddenly remembered to stay cautious of her and frowned before walking away. She just chuckled at his childish behavior and went back to the book she was reading.

* * *

**"The closer to the light you get, the greater your shadow becomes,"** the low voice reverberated in Sora's head and he turned around. _My shadow?_ He stared down at it, and then dropped his jaw as it lifted out of the ground and grew larger. He didn't know what was going on anymore, if any of this was real or not, but he knew that the giant black monster with tentacles as hair and glowing yellow eyes was not his friend.

**"But don't be afraid..." **He turned and started running, but came to the edge of the platform with a different woman on it than before. That platform was destroyed and he found himself walking through a maze of weird murals and darkness. **"And don't forget..."** He almost fell of the ledge, but managed to keep himself on and turned around to look at the enormous monster. He wasn't paying attention to the voice in his head, not knowing what he shouldn't forget, as he had to dodge a blow from the beast.

The sword he found before that gave him strength to fight off monsters disappeared and he fell to the ground as the beast attacked him with a giant black fist. _That's me,_ he realized suddenly as he looked at its face and saw a resemblance with the hair. **"But don't be afraid..."** He was definitely afraid as he tried to push himself up.

The ground beneath him started to open up and more darkness was below him, but this darkness was more like a liquid. He tried prying his arms and legs away, but strands of black goo were wrapping themselves around him and pulling him down. The center of the darkness was purple and he started to sink into it. **"You hold the mightiest weapon of all."** Sora ignored the voice and struggled to escape from the darkness to no avail. **"So don't forget."** He reached his arm up just as it was surrounded by darkness and he couldn't use it to pull himself out. Tendrills of black shadows were surrounding him and if he wasn't so scared, he probably would have been yelling back at whoever was talking to him.

**"You are the one who will open the door."**

Sora opened his eyes and heard birds chirping around him. The sun was overhead blinding him, and the blue sky was littered with small clouds. He sat up on a beach and looked over the water, before falling back down and seeing Kairi's face right above him. "Whoa!" he shouted, sitting up fast in surprise.

He turned around and got on his knees. The girl was bent down looking at him with a smile on her face and started giggling at his reaction. "Give me a break Kairi," he moaned, but smiled as he said it.

"Sora you lazy bum, I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here."

Suddenly he remembered what just happened and his eyes went wide. "No. This huge black thing swallowed me up. I couldn't breath, I couldn't," she bonked him on the head to stop his rapid rant.

"Are you still dreaming?" She asked and leaned closer to see if his eyes were actually closed. He rubbed the back of his head and stared back at Kairi who was now inches in front of his face.

"It wasn't a dream," he said firmly, but lost his confidence in seconds. "Or was it? I don't know. What was that place? So bizarre," he looked up and blushed realizing that Kairi was only centimeters away, but then she stood up straight and started walking from the sand Sora was lying on, towards the water.

"Say Kairi," he started, "what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up."

"I've told you before," she responded with a laugh, "I don't remember."

_She was ten when she moved here, there must be something._ "Nothing at all?" he asked again, trying to get something out of her.

"Nothing," she said again.

She wasn't one to lie, so he just accepted it there. Instead he asked a different question, "You ever want to go back?"

"Well, I'm happy here." He nodded at her but she kept going, "But you know, I wouldn't mind going to see it."

Sora smiled at her, "I'd like to see it too. Along with any other worlds out there! I want to see them all!"

"So what are we waiting for?" she turned back and smiled at him.

Before he could answer, a different voice shouted to them, "Hey," they turned and smiled at the boy in the blue jeans walking towards them. Riku put on a fake frown and asked, "Aren't you guys forgetting about me?" He sighed and smiled again, "So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."

He tossed the large log in his hand at Sora who bobbled it and then it dropped on him. "Oof," he looked up at his best friend since childhood and watched as Riku walked past him to Kairi. _Riku, Kairi, you guys are alright. So what was that dream... or was it even a dream at all?_

"And you're just as lazy as he is," Riku scolded playfully and pointed a finger at her.

She laughed a lot and then held out her arms, "So you got me. Okay, we'll finish it together! I'll race you," she said with a competitive grin.

The two males sitting next to each other scoffed. Sora mumbled, "Huh?"

"What, are you kidding me?" Riku asked like it was such a childish idea, even though he was only fourteen years old, a few months older than his best friend next to him. Sora looked like he agreed at how silly it was and just sat there as well.

"Ready, Go!" Kairi shouted and Riku and Sora glanced at each other. Both of them shot on their feet and started sprinting for the shack. It divided the two halves of the island and the first one there would be the winner. Kairi laughed and chased behind them a lot slower than they were.

The kids spent the whole day working on it and then took a break before heading home on the tiny island off of the main one. It had a few palm trees on it and that was it, except that one of the trees was bent horizontally allowing Sora and Kairi to sit up on it while Riku just leaned on it.

"So," Sora broke the peaceful silence after a while, "Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be," Riku said with crossed arms. The other two looked at him and Sora couldn't help but be a little jealous of his friend's muscles. He always competed with Riku in everything, but his friend held that couple of months difference between them over his head and kept winning whenever they sparred or raced. Just earlier, Riku had beaten him to the door of the shack by a few seconds. "We'll never know by staying here."

The other two both agreed with that, hoping they could finish the raft as soon as possible. "But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked.

"Who knows?" Riku said with a wave of his hand, not once looking away from the sunset over the water. "If we have to, we'll think of something else."

"So, suppose you get to another world," Kairi inquired, "What would you do there?"

Both boys thought about the question and Riku voiced the answer that Sora and him were thinking. "Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just, I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds- then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?" he asked them, realizing he had been ranting for some time now.

"I don't know," Sora responded and laid back on the tree with his arms behind his head. The boy with long silver hair dropping down to his shoulders sighed, _always so laid back, even when I'm trying to be serious here._

"Exactly," Riku thought back to his dream, "That's why we need to go out there and find out." He took a few steps towards the edge of the small island and looked out at the waves, "Just sitting here won't change a thing." Kairi looked out over the water and Sora looked too. It was the same water they'd been looking at for years and it was no different from any other day. "It's the same old stuff," Riku continued, "So let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi asked him.

He turned, "Thanks to you," he smiled at the girl, the newest member of their group of friends. "If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this." Sora tilted his head up, feeling a pang of annoyance at Riku talking to Kairi like that.

He tilted his head back again, realizing that there was nothing to be jealous of, but he still couldn't keep his mind off them. Until he saw something that made his blue eyes go wide and caused him to fall off the tree.

"Kairi, thanks... Sora!" Riku saw his friend falling and ran forward, extending his hand. The spiky haired boy falling down didn't tear his eyes away once from the thing he saw in the distance. Both of the other kids watched as Sora fell in the water and then splashed back out fast. He was staring out and lifted an arm, pointing in the distance.

The others looked out and Kairi's lower lip dropped while Riku smiled wide. He didn't think it was possible. His entire life, he'd thought the island was all there was, but then Kairi arrived. She didn't know where she came from, but she wasn't from Destiny Islands, which meant she had to be from somewhere else. Now his thoughts were confirmed as he stared ahead at the small ship in the distance, flying a sail with a skull and crossbones with a straw hat on top.

The two kids still on the cliff started running back across the wooden bridge connecting the wooden warehouse and the small island. The warehouse was small, but had a staircase to get up there from the beach and they both sprinted down, excited looks on their faces.

Riku stashed away the fruit he grabbed off the tree for later, putting the joke he was going to make with Sora on hold for later.

* * *

"Island ho!" Usopp shouted. The long-nosed sharpshooter saw a large island next to a smaller one with a pretty wide channel in between them. He was going to tell them to head to the larger one, but there was a dock on the smaller one that was in plain sight and he told them to head that way.

"I'm shocked really," Robin said as she sat up from her chair. It had only been half a day since the Log Pose broke, but they had already found an island to stay at. "People get lost on the Grand Line and never see an island again, but we managed to find one in a matter of hours."

"Guess we're just lucky," Zoro said as he yawned and sat up from where he was napping.

"Really lucky," Nami said with a breath of relief. The whole crew amassed on the front of the ship except for Chopper who was at the helm. "A little to starboard, she called out and the reindeer complied, steering the ship right towards the dock.

"What's that?" Nami said as she saw some movement on the beach near the dock. As they got closer, the crew saw three children grabbing dinghies off the dock and pulling them around to the other side to make room for the pirate ship.

"That's the welcome party?" Usopp asked.

"Doesn't look like the island is inhabited," Robin stated, only seeing a few treehouses on it and a shack or too. "The other one is probably where the people live."

"Then we better stay here," Sanji said, "we don't want to get in trouble with the locals if we want to get ourselves a Log Pose."

Zoro voiced that he was still for the idea of just taking one, but the rest of the crew just told him to shut up. The Going Merry sailed towards the dock and the people on board watched bemusedly as a little girl with red hair jumped up and down excitedly. There was a slightly taller boy on her left who was waving at them with a large smile on his face and an even taller kid with silver hair on her right who just smirked at them with crossed arms.

"Hello there!" Usopp called out as he put one foot up on the edge of the ship. "I am the great Captain Usopp!"

"You're not the captain," Riku stated with a grin and then pointed at the other boy standing on the head of the wooden sheep coming towards them. "He is," the kid whispered to his friends before that the straw hat on his head matched the ones on the flag and sail.

Kairi and Sora nodded with smirks as the man who called out to them fell backwards, surprised he couldn't even fool children. The boat pulled up alongside the dock and Luffy was the first one down, but the rest of the crew was right behind him. They introduced themselves to the native islanders and the kids smiled and then told them their names.

"Where did you guys come from?" Riku asked the crew as they got up on the deck of the pirate ship. He wasn't deterred at all by the fact that they were pirates. He only knew about pirates from what he read in history books, but this was the first time he'd seen them and he suspected the books were wrong.

"We're the Straw Hat pirates," Chopper said to the kid in front of him. Riku looked down at the small animal that just walked out of the cabin and blinked a few times before pointing at it and asking what a reindeer was doing on their ship. "I'm a reindeer!" Chopper shouted at him while transforming into his big form, and then realized that's what the kid called him and smiled before dropping down to his small point again. "Knowing that I'm a reindeer doesn't make me happy you idiot!" He smiled and twirled around on his feet.

"SO cute!" Kairi ran over and hugged the little furball who loved the attention.

"Not who you are," Sora told them, wondering the same thing as Riku. "Where did you come from? Are you from a different world?"

The crew stared at the boy and then started cracking up at the question. The three children just stared at them and blinked a few times. Luffy was the only one who didn't laugh at all and just asked, "Other worlds?"

"They think we're aliens," Usopp said between laughter and finally calmed down. He saw that none of the kids were laughing and all just staring at the crew in wonder.

"We came from East Blue," Sanji said directly to the little girl in pink shorts in front of him. He didn't care much about the other two, but she was a cutie. "Well, most of us. The one you're holding was born here on the Grand Line."

The kids stared at each other with blank looks and then Kairi asked the man, "East Blue? Is that a world far from here?"

This time the crew didn't laugh, they were somewhat confused by the girl's question. Sora continued where she left off, "And what's the Grand Line?"

"We're on the Grand Line Sora," Nami said to the spiky-brown haired boy. She was starting to feel a little nervous.

"No," Riku told them with a shake of his head, "we're on the Destiny Islands. This is the Children's Island you just landed on." He smirked, "Our island."

"You have your own island?!" The captain of the ship asked in awe. Chopper was amazed as well while the other older people there just sighed.

Zoro figured he'd get straight to the point and looked to the tallest of the kids, who looked to be the oldest. "Do you guys have a Log Pose we could use? Or someone you know have one?"

The oldest of the three kids looked at the other two who just shrugged again and then Sora asked, "What's a Log Pose?"

Each of the members felt a pit in their stomach as they realized something. Sanji stared at them, _They don't know we're on the Grand Line. They don't know what a Log Pose is..._ "Hey," he turned from the cute girl and looked at the brown haired kid who told him his name was Sora, "how do you people get around to other islands?"

"Other islands?" Sora repeated in a daze. "There are other islands?!" He asked wondering where they were. The other two kids seemed just as excited.

The sun was almost completely set now and Kairi turned to the boys, "Hey guys, we're going to be late for dinner. I know my dad and Riku's won't mind, but Sora," the brown haired boy gulped and nodded. His mom was pretty strict about being home on time.

"Yeah we should get back," he turned to look at the crew in front of them again with a huge smile. "But we'll be back tomorrow first thing in the morning!"

"Wait," Nami said, still going over the things these kids had been telling them in her mind. "What is this place? Why don't you know what a Log Pose is? Don't you have other visitors?"

"Nope," Riku responded and they all looked at him in shock. "Besides Kairi and her dad, you guys are the first people I've ever seen who aren't from the island." With that last statement, the boy turned and ran to his dinghy while his friends got in their own and they started rowing back across the channel towards their houses.

Zoro nodded with a respectful look on his face. He'd wondered how the two boys in front of him looked strong for their age, but if they rowed back and forth between the two islands every day, it was going to make them strong.

The others were all getting back into a mode of panic. "They never have visitors. What does that mean?" Chopper asked the long-nosed pirate next to him who was shaking in his boots.

"It means they don't know what a Log Pose is!" Nami shouted at him and started pacing back and forth on the deck. "We can't risk just sailing back into the Grand Line without one, we may never find another island or boat and we won't be able to find our way back here."

"We'll most likely starve to death." Robin stated, "A very painful and slow way to go," she said and Sanji nodded feeling the same way.

"Don't say such scary things," Usopp pleaded with fear all over his face.

"In that case we'll just have to wait for another ship to come, then we'll take their Log Pose." Zoro offered and this time no one yelled at him; they were feeling desperate enough at the moment.

"But remember what they said," Luffy started and they all looked at the rubber captain to see if he was going to make sense like he does on occasion. "We're the first people they've ever seen show up here besides that Kairi girl. No one might ever come here again."

"It's probably an island that the Log Pose doesn't point to from any other island." Nami said with a scared look. "There are many trails from the start of the Grand Line, but if this isn't connected to any of those, then we're stranded here."

"Hmmm," they all mumbled and then spun their heads as Luffy shouted.

"Adventure!" they all sweat-dropped that he could think of that in a place like this. Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed the nearest post and shot himself into the woods of the island, scattering birds from the trees and sending them squawking away in the sky.

Sanji sighed, "Looks like we're stuck here for a while. At least until we can think of a better plan of action." He walked back into the cabin, "I'll whip us up some dinner."

Each of the members went back to doing activities on the ship, which for Zoro meant sleeping. All except for Usopp, who stared out over the water, shivering as he felt a sense of dread surround him. _What if we never get off this island?_ He associated the dread he felt with that thought, but there was something else that tore at him as well, and he couldn't place his finger on it.

Meanwhile in the jungle, Luffy was swinging across the vines in the thick trees and came back out right where he started. "Not a very big island," he said to himself and then saw a tower of wood with a ladder going up it and a zipline attached.

"Not big, but very cool!" He said and took the zipline shouting 'weeeee!' the whole way across.

**A/N Hey everyone! This is my first shot at a crossover on this site and I'm hoping it will be a good one. I'm really excited about this after reading a OP and KH crossover this morning. Can't wait to get to the juicy stuff and leave a review telling me what you think or any ideas you have. I'm posting this without a word of the second chapter written yet, so I'm up for any ideas I think are worth including in the story. 'Till next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

After a long night of sleep onboard the Going Merry, the Straw Hat crew was up and about early in the morning. While Zoro was lifting weights on the deck, a few kids rowed their dinghies up to the dock. He didn't recognize either of them from the day before and he looked at them with a blank look.

The first boy to get off his boat had tan skin and was even more muscular than that other child from the day before. He was holding a blue and white striped ball under his left armpit as he climbed up on the dock and looked straight at Zoro. His orange hair was pulled up in a spike and he had a blue bandanna that the swordsman smirked at, it was similar to his own green one. The boy looked around the same age as the other fourteen year olds from yesterday. He had yellow baggy pants on and a white tank top showing off his muscles.

The kid behind him jumped up on the dock with a red staff in his hands, tossing it back and forth between them as he looked up at the swordsman. _What's up with these kids? All of them have more muscles than Usopp... though that's not saying much._ This new kid was a head shorter than his tanner friend, but his yellow and white t-shirt was cut down the middle showing off his defined abs. He was wearing blue shorts with one pant leg slightly lower than the other and smiled cautiously up at the green haired pirate.

"My mom said to be careful around the visitors Wakka," the shorter kid warned his friend. Both were wearing sandals and looked up at the man on deck and then Tidus smiled wider, "But I think Sora's probably right. He looks like a chill dude."

"Yeah, I guess," the one called Wakka agreed while spinning the ball on one of his fingers.

"Hey I'm Tidus," the shorter kid called up to Zoro who figured if he had to introduce himself it would be better to do it from the dock. He dropped down to the wood and nodded at the boys, giving them his name.

They each looked up and down at the muscular swordsman and smirked. At the same time they both called out, "Fight me!" Zoro's expression changed to one of shock before the two kids started fighting each other to decide who got to fight him first.

He walked to the end of the dock and Chopper and Sanji dropped down hearing a commotion outside. A few of the others watched from the deck as the two boys ran onto the sand and started fighting. It was weird, really weird, both kids were fighting with ease, and were much stronger than their small bodies looked, even with their muscles.

The one called Wakka tossed the ball up a few times before chucking it at Tidus, slamming it off the smaller kid with such speed that the whole Straw Hat crew heard the slap of ball on skin. They thought it was over when Tidus flew back and hit the sand, but the kid lifted both his legs up in the air from his laying down position and the rest of his body followed him up as he brought his staff in the air and started swinging it at the larger boy.

Tidus sprinted around Wakka who was dodging his attacks and he spun the red staff at his head. The more muscular boy ducked, but Tidus was feigning and he brought the staff in a swipe across Wakka's feet. The larger kid flipped as his legs were taken out and landed on one hand before chucking the ball at Tidus who leapt backwards to avoid it. The ball ricocheted off thin air and bounced back to the boy who threw it, causing all of the pirates watching to stare in awe.

The smaller boy sprinted forward again, but Wakka wound up for another fast throw. Tidus dove to the right, only for Wakka to have anticipated it and nailed him square in the face, knocking him into the wooden wall leading up to an elevated section of the beach closer to the forest. The smaller kid struggled to pick himself up, and then dropped to the ground in exhaustion.

"Nice!" Wakka shouted and then was greeted by a round of applause by a few of the Straw Hats watching him. He turned around and gave a dramatic bow as Nami whistled at them.

So far the weather had been nice, and the locals were friendly enough. At least the kids were. _It's about time I get a vacation. Even with the looming possibility of us never leaving over my head, I'm going to enjoy it._

Luffy was the last one to finish his breakfast so he finally got out of the cabin, just as four more boats were arriving at the island. Three of the dinghies had the kids they met yesterday, but the fourth had a girl around Kairi's age with brown hair going back before splitting to either side and wearing a yellow dress. "Hey Luffy," Kairi called up to the rubber man looking down at her, "this is my friend Selphie!"

The new girl turned a little red as she finished paddling to the dock and got out behind her friend. She was holding a jump rope behind her and looked nervous at the sight of the new people. "My parents said to watch out for the pirates. Though they were pretty interested in you guys and asked where you came from."

The others looked over and as Robin tried to answer the girl's question the best she could, Sora, Riku, and Kairi ran off towards the shack dividing the island. "Don't you guys want to talk to the pirates more?" Sora asked, a little disappointed.

"We'll have plenty of time for that later." Riku told him, "We promised that we'd work hard on the raft again today, we could even finish it!" He held Sora back for a second and then pulled out the fruit he'd been holding since yesterday.

"A paopu fruit?" Sora asked, recognizing the yellow star shape.

The older boy handed it to him with a smirk since Kairi was running pretty far in front of them now. "You wanted one didn't you?" He asked seriously. "If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what." He jogged a little faster than his friend and looked back with a grin, "Come on, I know you want to try it."

"What are you talking..." Sora kept jogging when he saw Kairi look back and smile at him. Riku laughed harder at this and the brown haired boy blushed, throwing the fruit aside and catching up to his friends.

They got to the other side of the island and there was a little way further to get to the raft they were building. Kairi was standing next to them as a referee and they were getting ready for a race. The captain of the pirate ship followed them to this side of the island along with the little reindeer guy when they saw the kids running away and wanted to see where they were going.

"If I win, I'm the captain!" Sora stated. Luffy just got through the door and looked ahead before smiling wide. _It's like the bet me Sabo and Ace made! Winner gets to be captain. I'll have to tell Ace about this when I see him again._ "And if you win..." Sora looked stumped so Riku helped him out.

"I get to share the paopu with Kairi," he finished.

"Huh?" Sora asked and the two spectators were just as confused after hearing the bet.

"Deal?" Riku asked and turned to his friend at the starting line, "The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi."

"Wha... Wait a minute," Sora said but Kairi couldn't hear him from where she was and called out to them.

"Okay! On my count. Three, two, one, GO!" The two boys started sprinting forward and Chopper and Luffy both stared with impressed, amazed looks. While Riku sprinted straight forward and scaled a rock wall, Sora climbed a ladder to the zipline Luffy used yesterday. He slid across it and the others were chasing after them, making their own paths as they wanted to see the race. Both kids stunned them by instead of dropping to the sand and running to the finish, they hopped on the tops of trees and leapt across to a star shape where Riku touched it a few seconds before Sora.

"Darn," Sora snapped as he held his knees and panted. "I was so close too." He looked up at Riku, wondering what the boy was going to do now.

"Oh the paopu?" Riku asked before smirking, "I was just joking about that," he laughed and ran back down the slope towards their raft.

Sora grunted and followed him before meeting up with Kairi who told them they were both getting faster. Chopper also said they were good, making them grin that they could impress a pirate, while Luffy was just staring at the raft.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing at the logs they had tied together.

"It's our raft, pretty cool huh?" Sora asked with his arms behind his head.

Riku looked out over the water, "Now that we know there are other worlds out there, it only makes me want to go out to find them even more."

Chopper looked shocked as he stared at the children, "What?! You can't travel the Grand Line in that, it'll fall apart! You'll die!"

"We've decided," Kairi told him with a smile.

Riku nodded stoicly as he looked out. "If it's for our dream, then I'm willing to take any risk. Who knows how many worlds are out there for us to explore?"

Chopper looked to Luffy for help, but the pirate captain was looking up and down the smiling kids with interest. "If it's for your dream, then no one will stop you," he said, "but Chopper's right. That raft won't get you anywhere."

"We're not finished with it yet," Sora explained.

"But we're going to be after today," Riku added, not caring about what the pirates were telling them about the dangers. He left to go get some supplies while Kairi handed Sora a list of things to get before sitting on the boat and working on something.

Sora looked up and down at all the items and sighed. He turned to the two pirates standing next to him and smiled, "You guys want to help?!" The way he said it made it sound like an adventure and the other two cheered in agreement. "Okay, first, we need some coconuts. Hit the trees and a coconut will usually fall."

"Really?" Luffy asked. "Alright then," he turned around towards the littered palm trees all around them and grinned. "Gum Gum," Kairi looked up from where she was working and Sora looked confused before both kids dropped their jaws in shock, "Gattling Gun!" Luffy's arms stretched out and he started punching all the trees rapidly.

When he finally stopped, all the trees shook for a few seconds. Then they stopped. "Hmm," Luffy mumbled with a frown, "maybe I didn't hit them hard enough." Just then, every coconut in the trees dropped down at the same time making the beach shake.

"Cool," Sora said before looking at Luffy, "How'd you do that?"

"I ate the Gum Gum Fruit, it made me a rubber man," he told them. Both kids looked confused so Chopper showed them his transformations, one of which they saw on the ship yesterday. He told them that there were a lot of Devil Fruits and they gave all sorts of crazy powers.

Sora looked over at Kairi, "Maybe we'll find one when we go to another world!" The girl looked excited as well and Chopper finally had to ask.

"Why do you guys keep saying other worlds?"

The two of them blinked at him for a few seconds and then at each other. "Well," Sora started and then looked back, "no one has ever come to the island before. We always thought this was it for our world." A large grin spread across his face again before he continued, "But even though you guys say you're from somewhere else in this world, I think we're still going somewhere else."

"Riku always says there can be infinite worlds out there," Kairi started and the Straw Hat pirates looked at her, "so ours is just one small piece, of something much greater. Right?" She said and the other two looked at each other in surprise.

"I-I've never really thought about it," Chopper said, trying to think about it for the first time. Luffy was imagining a world made entirely of meat: meat trees, meat seas, meat boats, meat coats. He started drooling before Chopper asked, "What's the next thing on the list?"

"We have to find two mushrooms," Sora said and handed the reindeer the list. Kairi went back to what she was doing while the other three split up to look for mushrooms. Chopper made a point of it to make sure they came to him and showed what type of mushrooms they found in case they were poisonous.

Sora got to the other side of the island and saw Tidus having a staff fight with the navigator named Nami. Near her, the guy with the long nose was trying to fight Wakka from a distance. He started watching the two fights for a few seconds, amazed at the mirages that Nami was creating and the accuracy that Usopp showed while fighting his friends. Tidus and Wakka weren't wimps though, they were putting up good fights.

_Oh yeah,_ he turned towards the secret cave, the one he played in with Kairi when she first got to their island. _Even then, we already knew we'd be close friends,_ he thought as he entered the cave.

One woman saw him go in and she decided to check it out, she'd wanted to explore the island and that was a great place to start.

Sora walked over and put his hand against the drawing he made of Kairi's face when he was younger. His head was right next to hers where she carved it in with a rock, and he had to admit, hers was better drawn. He didn't notice the black haired woman walk into the cave behind him as he was too involved with the pictures. They brought back memories and he sat down, picking up a rock and carving something new in the wall.

When he was just about to be finished with the paopu fruit he was drawing in front of Kairi's mouth, Robin accidentally kicked a rock while trying to sneak away. It looked like this was a private cave for the boy, but now that she was found out she turned back around at the kid staring at her. "Sorry, I was just exploring a little."

"It's okay," he replied, looking back at his drawing again. Robin smiled at the kid and he opened his mouth to talk again, but he felt something weird, "What, who's there?" He shot to his feet and Robin was startled that she didn't notice it sooner. A tall figure in a black cloak was standing in front of a wooden door at the edge of the cave.

"Who are you?" she asked and the person gazed over at her. The cloak was covering his face, but he seemed to appear out of nowhere, freaking her out.

He turned back to Sora like the woman wasn't even there and the kid was staring at him intensely. "I've come to see the door to this world," the figure said in a low voice that sent chills down Robin's spine. She'd worked for some hard-bitten criminals in her day, but not even Crocodile gave her chills like this man did.

"Huh?" Sora turned towards him completely and looked over at Robin for a second but she was just as startled by the man's entrance as he was. _The door? It's always been there, what about it?_

"This world has been connected."

Robin was freaking out now. She was a calm and composed person, but she was at the only entrance of the cave, and no one was in here except for Sora when she arrived. _Did he come through that door when I wasn't looking? No, I definitely would have saw him._

"W-What are you talking about?" Sora asked. Robin was surprised the boy had the nerve to ask this man anything, she was just staring at him in awe, wondering what he could be.

"Tied to the darkness..." the man continued in an ominous tone, causing both the boy and woman to start sweating. "Soon to be completely eclipsed."

"Well whoever you are," Sora shouted at him with a wave of his fist, "stop freaking me out like this. Huh?" Robin was about to yell at the kid to run since the man before them was talking about the end of the world, but Sora noticed what she was already thinking. "Where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door," the man replied in a dark tone.

"Sora," Robin called to him, "We should go," she urged in a calm voice that masked how scared she really was. Both the kid and the man ignored her and kept staring at each other.

"So, you're from another world!" Sora shouted at him excitedly. He was not taking this the same way as Robin, and was far too calm when talking to a stranger in a dark dank cave.

"There is so very much to learn," the man said to the child in the bright red clothing. "You understand so little," he cast a glance in Robin's direction, "as do you." Now she was surprised. She thought the man was just talking about how the island they were on never got any visitors, but now she was thinking maybe the term 'world' was being used in a much more literal sense.

The person gazed back at Sora who was angrily yelling at him. "Oh yeah? Well you'll see. I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!" His blue eyes were full of determination and Robin had to admire his resolve and ability to yell at this scary figure without fear.

"A meaningless effort," the shadowy figure said in a condescending tone. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." Just then a loud whooshing sound came from the wooden door with a yellow outline on the wall. The figure to the left of it turned and the others looked at the door as well.

Sora snapped his head back away from the door and Robin looked back too to see that the man was no longer there. She spun her head around a few times, but he was nowhere in sight. "That was weird," Sora said as he looked to the older woman, "I bet he was from another world."

_All this talk of other worlds is very unsettling,_ Robin thought as she nodded to the boy and then turned around, leaving him to his cave. _I should mention this to the others. We may be in danger here. The world is about to be 'eclipsed'? Does he mean the whole world or just this island?_ With her mind clouded with thoughts of worry, Robin left to walk back outside into the calm beach area where the rest of the crew were hanging out.

Sora followed after her after grabbing a mushroom he found in there. When he got outside, Chopper ran over to him holding rope while Luffy was holding a large piece of cloth and the guy with the long nose had the fish they needed. "Sora! We got Usopp to help us out, and we found everything else on the list, but we couldn't find a second mushroom."

The little reindeer sounded upset, but his spirits rose as Sora held up the last thing they needed and they ran back across the island to drop it off. At one point they passed Zoro who was holding off Wakka, Tidus, and the girl Selphie who used her jump rope as a weapon, all at the same time.

He had a wooden sword in his hand, and despite dodging most of their attacks with ease, he found the kids were each pretty durable, even the girl who he tried not to hit as hard. Also, they were really good at dodging and he smirked, surprised the kids could actually give him a challenge when fighting together, since one by one he finished them quickly.

The group ran past them and across the island to the raft where they put everything down and Riku walked over with a surprised look. "Wow, we're finished already, nice!" He turned away from the pirates helping them and looked at the other two, "How about it guys, tomorrow sound like a good day to head off on our adventure?"

"Yeah!" Kairi and Sora said simultaneously and held their hands out. All three of them locked pinkies and Usopp was shocked, he didn't know that was what he was helping them with. Luffy then told him they were putting their lives on the line, so it wasn't their place to tell them not to go.

The group split up, the pirates exploring the jungle or challenging the other kids to fights, while Riku went off to challenge some pirates of his own. All the kids on Children's Island were enjoying themselves and Sora and Kairi were no exception. The day went by and it really was turning into a vacation for the Straw Hats who were forgetting about their worries and just enjoying themselves.

Sora and Kairi hung out after eating some food at the treehouse with their friends. The two of them walked down the dock near the Straw Hats' ship where the chef was making dinner. Nami walked inside and put a finger to her lips before motioning for Sanji to come outside as well. She brought him to the side of the deck and crouched down, both of them peeking over at the two kids watching the sunset.

_Lucky little brat,_ Sanji thought as the spiky haired boy was sitting next to the cutie with the pink shorts. Then he realized that he was doing pretty much the same thing with Nami and blood dripped out of his left nostril.

"You know, Riku has changed," Kairi said out of the blue as they looked over the water.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well..." she thought for a second.

"You okay?" Sora questioned, wondering what was up with her.

"Sora, let's take the raft and go, just the two of us!" She called out and the boy seemed surprised. Nami smiled, seeing that the girl liked the kid she was sitting next to, but Sanji was frowning at the lucky boy below them.

"Huh?"

_Oh he better not say no,_ Sanji thought while clenching his toes, ready to kick something. _If I was given a chance like this I would go to the ends of the planet and back!_

She giggled at his confused face, "Just kidding." Nami was relieved, she thought the girl was actually considering leaving their other friend behind who helped work on the raft Usopp told them about at lunch.

"What's gotten into you?" he chuckled as the sun kept setting. Nami had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from saying 'Awwww'. "You're the one that's changed Kairi."

Her tone suddenly shift to a more thoughtful one, "Maybe..." She leaned forward on her knees so she was almost off the dock. "You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."

Both Nami and Sanji thought about Cocoyashi village and Baratie respectively. They remembered the families they left behind and smiled knowing that they could do the same thing one day, if they ever wanted to.

"Right?" she asked Sora for confirmation.

"Yeah, of course! If pirates could find their way here, then of course we can find our way back. We've been here the whole time!" The boy seemed so energetic, even after his fights with his friends and the pirates.

"That's good," Kairi said in relief. "Sora, don't ever change."

This time Nami couldn't prevent herself from letting slip, "Awww," she clamped her mouth shut and was relieved that neither kid heard her, though Sanji almost passed out from how beautiful she was when she saw something cute.

"Huh?" Sora responded. It was really turning out to be his favorite word today.

The girl next to him stood up, the same look of determination in her eyes that Riku had when he stared out at the broad ocean. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."

The two of them got in their dinghies and left, continuing their conversation as they did. One by one, the other children on the island went back to the dock and bailed while the pirates went back to their ship to get some needed rest after a whole day of fun.

Riku and Zoro were the last ones going back to the ship. The silver haired boy was sporting a red bump on his left cheek and a scrape on his right elbow, while the pirate was annoyed that he even had a scratch, no matter how small, under his left eye. Sanji immediately teased him for it when he got to the dock but ran away when he heard Nami calling for him in the cabin.

Zoro was about to climb up his ship when he turned around and saw Riku not getting in his little wooden boat, but instead staring out over the water with clenched fists. "Soon," he said. The swordsman heard about their journey and nodded at the kid's resolve before hearing him speak again, "I'm going to go to every world, and my name will be known all over. There could be thousands out there, and each one will make me stronger," he brought his left fist back and smiled before backflipping and then hopping in his dinghey.

Zoro watched as the teenage boy paddled away, at one point raising his right hand a waving it around without turning. There was no point in waving back, but Zoro got the message and nodded before climbing back on the Going Merry.

It was about an hour later, after everyone was on the ship and hanging out in the common room, that Robin stepped forward and said she had something to talk about. Being the new member, the crew calmed down quickly since she didn't often make requests like this. "Earlier today, I saw a man on the island."

A few of them looked at each other, wondering if they knew what she was talking about. The twenty-eight year old woman continued, "He appeared out of nowhere, and said that this world was now connected, tied to the darkness." Shivers ran up some of the members' spines and Sanji lit up a smoke. Only Zoro and Luffy were unphased by this, thought Luffy seemed more interested until Robin continued, "He wore a black cloak so I couldn't see his face, but he said the world was about to be _eclipsed._"

"That doesn't sound good," Sanji commented and Usopp and Chopper nodded furiously.

"I vote for leaving the island now," Usopp said, already in panic mode.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Nami asked him in an annoyed voice. She wasn't in the mood for his cowardice, "We haven't stocked up on food yet, we wouldn't last a few days out there before running out completely."

"Oh, yeah," Usopp said and slouched before remembering what Robin said and shaking again. "This isn't good."

sc

Sora was lying down in his bed on the other island, thinking about all the fun he had with the pirates. He told his mom about them and she agreed that they really sounded like nice people and maybe she'd see if they wanted to come to the main island and talk to some adults instead of kids all day. He responded that they acted a lot more like kids than most of his friends did and his mother just laughed at this.

Now his mind wandered to someplace else though, _'I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great.' Kairi,_ he thought and smiled up at his ceiling before hearing thunder in the distance. "A storm?" He looked outside and saw the beginning of a storm brewing near the island. _Hmm, that's weird,_ "Oh no! The raft!" He realized and shot out of bed.

He climbed out his window, not too worried about his mom freaking out about it. He was leaving the next day anyway, so he wouldn't have to bear the consequences of sneaking out.

Sora paddled as fast as he could and arrived at the island where he saw Riku and Kairi's boats tied up alongside the dock. The pirate ship was still tied to it as well, and the pirates were all on deck staring up at the sky. He followed their gazes as he hopped out of his ship and looked up, "What is that?!" He shouted.

The crew looked away from the massive ball of darkness floating in the sky. It was surrounded by lightning bolts and this didn't feel like any storm they'd ever seen before. Robin's words echoed in their mind, "Ah! The world's being eclipsed!" Usopp panicked and ran around the ship.

"We'll go check out things on shore," Luffy said with a smile towards Zoro who nodded back at him.

"I think I'll come as well," Robin said.

"Sanji-kun, stay here and protect me," Nami said and the man obeyed. The two others who were scared also asked for protection after which the chef told them he'd only save Nami-san if it came to it.

Zoro, Luffy, and Robin started jogging down the dock as Sora walked far behind them. They were surprised to see the boy and Luffy called back, "Come on Sora, we're going on an..."

"Luffy look out!" The boy shouted up at him. Luffy stopped in his tracks and his hat almost came flying off as his eyes went wide. The other two were staring in shock as well, as a small black blob formed out of the ground with yellow eyes. Sora caught up to them now and he stared at the creatures in shock. They had weird black legs that squiggled and two antennae that twisted the same way. "Those are the things from my dream!" He shouted, confusing Robin who turned to him in surprise.

"Let's kick their asses," Luffy called out and punched one, but his fist kind of slid off without doing much damage. Zoro tried cutting one, but his sword slashed it backwards and it jumped at him, scratching his arm with a claw. Sora ran up and tried batting one away with his sword, but it did very little and his eyes went wide.

"It's not working," he muttered and started running down the beach. He had to get to his raft. Zoro pulled out his other sword and tried again, this time slashing through the monster in front of him, but only with a powerful attack. Luffy used a Gum Gum Bazooka and also knocked one of the things away, but they were too hard to damage to waste time on all of them and they gave chase to the kid running in a set direction.

Robin looked at them and then snuck off towards the secret cave. _If I'm right, the answer to what's going on should be in there._

Zoro didn't know why he was following Sora, but the kid seemed to know what he was doing. The kid with brown spiky hair froze as he was about to run under the bridge to the tiny island. Luffy and Zoro followed his gaze towards the island and saw Riku standing up there with his back to them.

"Come on," Sora told them as he ran past for the warehouse. The other two followed him inside where he ran up a staircase and got to the second floor before getting to the bridge. Luffy realized now that he could have just pulled them up, but it was too late and they started sprinting across the bridge to the kid who was just ignoring all the darkness falling on the island around them.

Sora was the first one there since he was leading and called out to his friend, "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"

"The door, has opened," Riku said without turning around. Zoro had a bad feeling about this and stared at the two kids, looking back and forth between them.

"What?" Sora and Luffy said at the same time, confused at what the other boy was talking about.

"The door has opened Sora!" Riku turned around and had a wide grin on his face, "Now we can go to the outside world!"

_Outside world?_ Zoro looked up at the ominous dark clouds and hole above him. _Wait, hole? What the hell is that?!_

Luffy stared at the two of them, going back to when he was next to the raft that morning with Chopper, Kairi, and Sora. The idea of other worlds interested him for a few moments, but back then he was distracted and started thinking about other things.

Sora wasn't having any of this talk, "What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" The boy shouted and looked up at the sky where the huge dark ball was glowing blue with a firey core. The orange burning center was scaring the members of the crew on the deck of the pirate ship, but they were more focused on the little black monsters that kept attacking them no matter where they hid. Riku continued talking to his best friend, "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back."

"Luffy, something seriously wrong is happening here," Zoro told his captain who was again staring up at the Mystery Darkness. "We might actually have to leave without the extra food if things go south here."

"What? But I want to see the other world," Luffy complained while pressing his lips together.

Riku continued talking to Sora, "We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back."

_That's some resolve,_ Zoro thought as he kept advising his captain. "We should leave before whatever is happening here happens. The crew could be separated, we might never get back here, our dreams don't exist in these other worlds. You'll never be King of the Pirates."

This seemed to get Luffy's attention as he realized he didn't want that to happen.

"But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us!" The fearless boy with silver hair shouted out as he stared up at the sky. "I'm not afraid of the darkness!" All three of the others stared at him as he seemed to know something was about to happen.

"Riku..." Sora started. Suddenly the ground before the boy in the yellow shirt shattered from the normal stone to complete darkness. Small purple blobs floated around the black wisps of black that formed beneath him.

"Ah! What is that?" Luffy shouted.

The black tendrills climbed up Riku's body like snakes and wrapped themselves around him. Zoro started running forward just like Sora, but unlike the brown haired kid, he sensed the ground breaking beneath him and leapt up in the air. Sora wasn't so lucky and got trapped by another black circle forming beneath him. Luffy who was watching in shock, suddenly realized the same thing was happening to him as the ground opened up and darkness appeared.

He was more focused on the other two kids who were getting sucked further and further into the darkness. "Zoro, get Riku!" The captain called out as he extended and arm to try and pry Sora out of the hole.

Both of the boys were shaking as the darkness pulled them in. _It's exactly like my dream,_ Sora thought as he held out a hand, trying to grab Riku's. Their fingers were so close, but the darkness enveloped them and they were lost in the darkness.

Sanji was injured but holding off the dark monsters on the ship while he told the other three to flee. The ship was overrun with the things and nowhere on board was safe anymore. The things could flatten themselves out and slip under the doors like it was nothing.

The three others running scared across the beach froze as all the heartless stopped moving and turned towards the small island connected by a bridge. Usopp pointed, "Look," the others saw what he was pointing at and watched as Riku and Sora began to get surrounded by darkness.

"We have to help them," Chopper exclaimed as they watched Zoro drop out of the sky next to the silver haired kid. The swordsman was instantly surrounded in darkness and pulled in while Luffy reached out an arm and wrapped it around Sora. Then in the blink of an eye, all four of them were gone.

"L-Luffy?" Usopp said as he fell on his butt. The monsters around them faded away into black circles that appeared on the ground. The three of them started calling out their friends' names, including the kids who just disappeared too.

Luffy had his eyes open, but everything around him was dark. All he knew was that he was still holding a stretched arm around Sora, and they were together. Suddenly a bright light flashed in the distance and got brighter and brighter until it surrounded them completely. Then, they were back on that island and Luffy heard his crew shouting his name from the shore.

He turned around and saw three of them staring up at him, calling Zoro's name as well. "Zoro? Zoro!" he turned around and shouted before noticing something. As his arm unraveled around Sora and snapped back to his side, he realized the kid was staring at something in his hand, and at the same time Luffy felt something heavy in his own right hand.

Sora looked down at the yellow hilt of the giant silver key he was holding. "What the..." one word reverberated in both of their heads, **"Keyblade."** Sora looked at Luffy, "Did you hear that?"

The rubber man nodded before spinning around again, calling out Zoro's name.

"It's no use," Sora said. "He's not here anymore. Riku was going to another world, so that must be where Zoro is now."

"Another world huh?" Luffy said while looking down. He had a keyblade of his own with a black metal on the key part, and a white hilt. Just like Sora's, his had a little keychain hanging off of it, and for some reason, the weapon felt nice in his hand. "Guess that settles it," he looked off the island at where his crew was standing, slowly getting surrounded by monsters again, "Hey guys! We're heading to a new world!"

"What?!" All three of them shouted back in fear.

"Don't worry," Sora said to them as he and Luffy started running on the bridge. "No matter where you go, you'll always find each other if you keep your friends in your heart." The two of them jumped off the bridge onto the sand.

"That sounds so cute and cheesy and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Nami shouted.

"Alright everyone," Luffy called to his friends as Sora went running towards the cave entrance. "Go get Sanji and meet back here, we're heading on a new adventure." _Robin went towards that cave, I have to get her before we leave._

The three scared members gulped and nodded, running away towards the ship. Little did they know, a darkness just like the one that took Riku and Sora already got their chef who was protecting the ship on his own.

Sora kept running towards the cave and he felt Luffy running next to him. _Good. He can help me find Kairi._ They started hitting the black enemies in their yellow eyes and antennae with the keyblades in their hands. He smiled at the guy in the Straw Hat after they destroyed a batch of creatures much faster than they did before with their special new weapons. The man held up a thumb and sprinted into the dark cave, hoping to find their friends and get out of there.

**A/N The plot thickens! Sanji, Zoro, and Riku are gone, and the island is surrounded in darkness. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter, leave a review telling me what you think or if you have any ideas for me. Next time Donald and Goofy show up! Can't wait!**

avatoa

This...is gonna be both epic and awesome!

**Hope you liked Wakka and Tidus's fight scene there in the beginning. Next time all shit's gonna break loose on Destiny Islands!**

Guest

Super fantastic awesome I can't wait for the next chapter

**Well you don't even have to wait a whole day, here's the next chapter!** **Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Where's Sanji?!" Nami shouted as she got to the dock and looked ahead. The wooden platform was covered in the little black monsters and they were seriously freaking her out.

Chopper and Usopp were trying to push the creatures back but they couldn't see Sanji at all. He would still be on the deck... if he was still there. That thought went through all three of their minds and they looked at each other in worry before turning around and realizing they were completely surrounded.

_I-I, I'm going to be brave!_ "Chopper, Nami, listen to me," the long nosed sharpshooter started as the enemies closed in all around them. "I'll hold them back here," he said in a shaky voice. "S-Sanji probably disappeared just like Zoro did, and you guys have to tell Luffy. Chopper use a Rumble Ball and jump out of here!"

The monsters chose that second to attack and Usopp started sniping each one with his slingshot as they got close. The explosions were just enough to knock back the monsters. "Usopp no!" Nami yelled and reached for him before feeling two long arms wrap around her.

"I'm sorry Nami," Chopper said as he jumped up high in the air.

"No! We have to go back for him, we have to go back!" She looked up at the tall form of the reindeer in anger before softening when she saw the tears pouring out of Chopper's eyes. He probably spent more time than any of them with Usopp, and he just had to make the choice to leave him.

The two looked back down and saw the creatures stop attacking Usopp. The man put his weapon down a little as darkness started coming out of the ground and covering his legs. "USOPP!" They shouted back at him before landing and staring at the sniper.

"P-P-Proud Captain Usopp," he shouted back at them as the dark tendrills climbed up and around his body. "Shall never be defeated. W-We'll meet again!" The darkness covered him and he was gone.

* * *

Inside the secret cave, Sora and Luffy ran down the passage and into the opening. "Kairi!"

"Robin!" The woman was standing next to the girl and both were in front of an odd looking wooden door. Luffy could feel a dark presence coming from inside the door and he shouted at his friend, "The others are waiting outside. Zoro got taken to another world and..."

The two females in front of the door started to turn around and Luffy froze as he saw Robin's eyes. They were completely glossed over, and Kairi was the same. The girl stumbled around for a little, "Sora," she muttered and started lifting up her hand.

"Luffy," the older woman looked back at the man who saved her when she wanted to die. He was the reason she was alive right now, and she looked at him in fear as the door behind her shot open. The boys had to cross their arms to protect themselves from the dark wind that shot out of the open door.

They lifted their heads up and Luffy watched as the small girl flew towards them in the wind, slamming straight into her friend who held out his arms to catch her. She vanished as soon as she touched him and then Robin lifted off and started flying towards Luffy. He didn't see the kid on his right get taken by the wind and tossed back down the passage because he wanted to do what Sora couldn't and he took the extra step, stretching his arms out and grabbing Robin before she disappeared.

As soon as his fingers touched the woman's arms, she vanished. Then the pirate captain was lifted off his feet as well and carried by the wind all the way to the entrance of the cave where he was thrown out into complete darkness.

"Luffy, Luffy get up," Sora shook the pirate who was inches away from the edge of the cliff. The rubber man got up and looked down over the side of the sand where the island's edge was getting pulled apart and into a dark abyss below them. There was no more sea, only darkness.

"LUFFY!" The captain looked up and saw the Going Merry spinning around in the sky. Chopper was holding onto a rope on it for dear life and it vanished up in the sky.

"My home," Sora said in fear as he looked ahead. Nothing remained of his world except the small bit of sand they were standing on. _Everyone I know, they're all gone. And the world, it's being destroyed._

"Sora," the kid snapped his head up and saw the pirate captain standing next to him, still with a smile on his face. "Don't worry, we'll find your friends, and mine."

"Luffy help me!" The two of them turned around and saw a giant black monster standing in the middle of the island and Nami was in one of its hands.

The two looked at each other and nodded before charging ahead. They only got two steps before a light flashed and the two Keyblades reappeared in their hands. They dropped them when the black wind hit them, but now the blades were back and helping them fight.

The battle lasted a while, with the giant shadow form that looked a little like Sora attacking them in any way possible. Smaller monsters from before came out of its hand while dark balls shot out of its mouth. Sora and Luffy were both panting and covered in small scratches when the monster finished its attacks and collapsed to one knee, bending its head.

They hit the beast in the head a few times more, trying to make sure it was really down for the count. When they hit it, it reared up and roared, still holding on to the ever-screaming Nami. "Don't worry Nami! We'll find you!" Luffy called up at her as the monster was ripped off the ground and torn towards the enormous purple and red ball in the sky.

"Luff..." she was pulled with the monster into the darkness and vanished, a pang of hurt going through the captain who was now without any nakama.

It was like the center of gravity on the island disappeared because it wasn't large enough any longer and Sora could feel himself getting pulled away as well. He ran fast to a piece of wood on the floor and grabbed onto it, Luffy running over and grabbing the same piece. A few seconds later they were lifted up and thrown into the sky, the last piece of island shattering below them.

The rubber man grabbed onto Sora so they wouldn't be separated. He looked at the kid who stared around at all the broken pieces of island with a sad and scared look. "Don't worry," he said and smiled at the boy, "everything will be fine. If your friends are like my nakama, they can handle themselves."

"I guess you're right," Sora said as they flew up into the red sparking sky.

"Whoopeeeee!" Luffy said, enjoying the ride until he felt his fingers slipping. "Wait, Sora! Hold on!" The brown haired boy tried his best to hold on but the pirate slipped through his grip and the wind in the cloud tore them away from each other.

* * *

In a town on a distant world, a duck and a dog wearing clothes were walking down the street. A bad feeling went down Goofy's spine and he looked up at the sky, "Donald!" he pointed and the duck looked up as well. "Look, a star's goin' out!"

One of the stars in the sky flickered for a few more seconds, and then poof. It was gone.

"Come on, let's hurry," Donald exclaimed. They had no time to waste in their mission if more worlds were being destroyed as they spoke. The duck waddled around the center square mumbling to himself, "Where's that key..."

"Hey ya know," Goody suggested, "maybe we ought to go find Leon."

They were about to turn to walk up a staircase when they heard something and stopped moving. "What was that?" Donald asked and they both heard it again, looking up in the sky slowly. Their eyes went wide as whatever it was, was falling right towards them.

The two dove out of the way, right as the thing falling from the sky landed where they were just standing. "What was that hiyuk?" Goofy said as he stood back up.

"Wawawawa," Donald quacked annoyingly as he stared down at the feet sticking out of the ground. There was the entire bottom half of a person there, "Come on Goofy, let's pull him out quick!"

The two went to either side, "One, two, three," they pulled hard and plucked the person out of the ground like he was a vegetable. "Whoa, who are you?" The large dog in the green undershirt asked. Neither of them saw the yellow dog they were with a second ago, Pluto, had just run off and was now walking down an alleyway where he found an odd boy leaning against a wall.

"Ugh," Sora said after getting a lick from the dog on his face, "where am I?" He saw a dog in front of him and started asking it for directions. Unlike Goofy though, this dog couldn't talk and just licked him again.

Back in the square, Luffy was looking around amazed at all the bright lights around him.

"Who are you!?" Donald shouted. The duck was wearing an all blue jacket and a blue hat to match his friend's yellow one. He stared at the boy with a straw hat on his head that somehow stayed on even after he was plunged into the pavement.

Luffy looked around and saw a few other people in the lit up area. It was night time high above him, but there was so much light in the town, _whoa! _He turned to the guy yelling at him to respond before blinking a few times.

The pirate captain was staring at a... dog-person, in the face. He looked down at the one yelling at him and was just as surprised to see an oversized duck staring back at him. "I'm Luffy," he answered the cool animal's question. "I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates!"

"What's that?" The dog thing asked him and the pirate blinked a few more times with a straight face.

"You," Luffy lifted a hand and a wide smile came over him, "what are you? You're so cool!"

"Well garsh," the dog standing on two feet in large boots said with a blush on his face. "I'm Goofy..."

Donald suddenly remembered they were trying to find Leon, not this guy! "Let's go Goofy! This is the place where the lost from the broken worlds gather. We can't get caught up with him," Donald whispered the last part because they weren't supposed to mention things about the other worlds in front of people.

"Oh yeah, ok Donald," he lifted his head to the smiling teen in he red shirt. "See ya Luffy," he waved at the guy who was disappointed to see them go, but remembered he had something to do too.

"That's right," he punched his left palm with his other fist making a loud slap sound. "Nami! Zoro!" He shouted out, about to call out the rest of his friends' names.

"Shut up!" A woman shouted at him. She was leaning up against a pillar outside a closed restaurant. "No one likes a loud newcomer."

He stared at her for a few seconds before lifting back up his head and shouting, "Robin! Sora!"

"Luffy!" The rubber teen spun around and saw the last person he called, running straight towards him. Sora jogged over with a smile on his face. The yellow dog he was with wagged its tail a few times before running off. The kid was looking for Kairi and Riku, but was glad he saw at least one familiar face here. "Where are we?" Sora asked him and the pirate looked over at the woman who was still glaring at him.

"Hey where is this?" Luffy shouted at her.

She grunted and calmed down a little, "You're in the first district of Traverse Town."

"What about the island?" Sora asked her and the woman had a blank expression and just turned away. The twelve year old wasn't deterred. He turned and saw a store right behind them, "Hey Luffy, let's go check this place out. Maybe we'll find Riku and Kairi if we look around. Oh, and your friends too." He added at the end and Luffy smiled at him.

"Yeah sure," he looked around at the weird town. He'd never seen a place like this before and it was really cool. Thoughts of his friends were put in the back of his mind, he knew they could take care of themselves. So for now, he just wanted to explore this new place.

_Maybe it's a different world! That would be awesome! _He followed Sora into the door of the shop and there was a man behind the counter.

The blonde guy with spiky hair had large muscles and spun to look at the new customers. "Hey there, how can I-" he stopped after taking a look at them, "ah it's just a couple of kids."

"Hey I'm not a kid," Sora yelled at him and stormed up to the counter. Luffy meanwhile was looking around the building in surprise. There were lights coming out of the ceiling and there wasn't any fire in them. He wondered how that worked.

Sora asked the man about his island and his friends. "Name's Cid," the guy said with a nod at them. "And this definitely isn't your island kid. Don't know where you came from, but we get new people here all the time."

Luffy introduced himself in his normal way to the guy who sweatdropped. The older boy seemed less mature than the smaller one. Neither had any money the man would accept, but he said before they left, "If anything happens, come to me. I'll take care of you guys." He tossed them little pouches for the money in their world as an extra parting gift.

"I can take care of myself," Luffy said with a wave. Sora just grinned at the man thankfully and followed his new friend out the door.

"Where do we go now?" Sora asked. Luffy looked around before pointing a direction and Sora looked to see that would lead them right back to the square they were just at. "Ok, I guess I'll lead. Follow me," he turned and ran down a passageway next to the general store.

"Who's that?" Luffy pointed at a fat man standing on a ledge. His eyes went wide as he was drawn to someone else standing in front of the second floor door to Cid's shop. "What is that!?"

"The second floor is under repairs," the small white thing said.

"Oh," Luffy said and turned around towards Sora. The younger kid was waiting in front of a large door that had the words, 'Second District' written on a large sign. Somehow the light was illuminated and it made Luffy's eyes sparkle. "This place is so cool."

Sora saw his friend coming and opened the door. _I've got to find Riku and Kairi, they could be anywhere. _He stepped through the door and then stopped right away as a frightened man came running into their path and fell to the ground.

"Oi! Are you alright?" Luffy shouted over at the guy.

The man was wearing a nice collared shirt with a blue vest over it and he turned his head towards them slightly. The look of absolute horror on his face made the other two freeze and they watched as his mouth widened and his chest started to glow.

Sora couldn't move, but Luffy ran towards him to try and help. The light emitted a weird sensation of dread that both boys felt, but it was only when his chest opened up and a pink heart came out, did Luffy fall back on his butt. "Ah! A heart!" He was surprised, he'd heard that hearts didn't actually have that curved shaped with the dip at the top.

The man below the heart stared up at it in fear as darkness sprouted beneath him and purple bubbles gathered around him before he faded away. His heart flew a couple of feet away towards a black ball with spinning red and orange disks around it. The orb absorbed the heart and a creature formed from it. It had a black face and yellow eyes just like the giant they had to fight and the small monsters, but this one was wearing a coat of armor and Luffy's eyes turned to sparkles.

"So cool!" he said before the thing did a frontflip and disappeared in a new black circle it created in front of him.

"Cool?" Sora asked as he stepped forward. He gave the older teen a mean look and Luffy stopped smiling as he thought about the man on the ground a few seconds before.

"That thing took his heart?" Luffy started in a low tone.

"I think that _was _his heart," Sora replied, calming back down. Before they could talk about it further, a group of the small monsters from Sora's island sprouted out of the ground in front of them and looked ready for a fight.

Luffy pulled back both arms and tried a Gum Gum Gattling Gun at the five creatures in front of him. All but one sank down into the floor and his punches missed, while the fifth was hit by a few and knocked backwards, only to get back up and start charging in again.

Sora held out his hands to the side and wished he had that Keyblade from before. Just as he thought that, the blade appeared in his hands and he blocked the first creature that dove at him. _All I need to do is think about it and it's there!_ He smirked and spun the key in his hands. He held it with both hands since it was a pretty heavy weapon, but it felt so right as he ran forward and slashed across two of the things before dashing and impaling one of them. He jumped up in the air and sliced down with the weapon, causing the creature to explode into a bunch of dark bubbles.

Something fell out of the creature and as Sora got closer, he saw it was the same kind of money that Cid showed them earlier at the store. "Hey Luffy," he called out to the rubber man behind him who tried a Gum Gum Stamp on the next enemy, "If you hit them hard enough, they drop money."

"How did you make that thingy pop up in your hands?" Luffy asked. His foot hit one of the creatures square in the face, but all it did was knock it backwards. He knew it did damage, but not nearly as much as his friend's weapon was.

"Just think about it," Sora told him as he finished off another enemy, only for more to appear in front of him.

"Think? But thinking is hard," Luffy mumbled and then closed his eyes as he thought the word, _Keyblade._ The black key appeared in his hands and he wrapped his hands around the white hilt, clutching it hard before swinging his arms. "Gum Gum Scythe!" He shouted and his swinging arms held the Keyblade at the end, slashing through several enemies in front of him and doing enough damage to take a few out.

"Nice," Sora said as there were only a few left. Then that number doubled as more black circles appeared on the floor. The pit in his stomach grew as that number then doubled and more were climbing up the stairs to their right. "Let's go back to the first district," Sora suggested and turned as he was scratched by one of the black things' claws. He started sprinting back at the door they just came in and turned back to Luffy. "Come on!"

The pirate was standing in front of a few dozen creatures and he was smiling at them. "You guys are strong huh? I'll be back, and I'm going to kick your asses when I do." He turned and started running after Sora. When he cast a look back though, his eyes went wide as he realized they weren't just going to wait for him to come back.

The swarm of monsters started chasing him and Sora held the door barely open enough for Luffy to squeeze through. As soon as the man was through, the fourteen year old slammed the door shut and put his hands on his knees, panting hard.

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed and panted a little bit too. Sora looked up at him, _does nothing phase this guy? We almost died there!_

"Uh Luffy," the kid started and stumbled backwards while staring at the ground behind the pirate in the straw hat.

"What's wrong Sora?" Luffy asked and then saw the kid start backpedaling faster.

"Run!" The brown haired boy shouted and turned, sprinting back towards the square from before. The black beasts on the other side of the door were sliding under it and Luffy panicked as well, thinking they were in a safe haven. As they ran, they saw a few people watching from second floor windows, but no one was in the passageways anymore.

They got down to the square and it was emptied out, but finally the monsters stopped chasing them at some point.

The two tried catching their breath finally. "They'll come at you out of nowhere." A voice started speaking and the two of them looked up at the staircase in front of Cid's shop where a man was standing. Luffy dropped his Keyblade back when they were running but Sora was still holding his and held it up on guard. The pirate held up a fist and grabbed his bicep with his other hand.

"Who are you?" Sora asked.

"And they'll keep on coming at you," the man continued as he stared at the younger boys. He had long brown hair that spiked out of the back unlike Sora's which stuck straight up. He had on a white undershirt and a black jacket opened down the middle. The man lifted his right hand which had a black glove on it and pointed at Sora, "as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade."

Luffy was staring at the cool metal necklace on the Mystery Man's neck. It had a silver cross and eagle at the bottom of it and didn't move an inch while the rest of the man did. "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?" The man put a hand up to his head in annoyance and this pissed off the other two.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Sora asked angrily.

Luffy looked the other way and saw a large door at the opposite side of the square. "Hey Sora, let's go look for everyone past that door."

"You can't go past that door," the man told Luffy who snapped his head back at him with a frown.

"Don't tell me what I can't do," the pirate growled at him. Pirates were free, no one put rules on them.

"Nevermind," the man said and then started walking towards them, "Now let's see that Keyblade." He looked prepared to take it and his large muscles showed he wasn't playing around.

_Maybe I couldn't hit those black things with my fists, but I can take this guy._ Luffy held up a hand and Sora held up his weapon, neither willing to give up without a fight. "There's no way you're getting this!" Sora shouted at him.

The man stopped walking towards them and Luffy was stunned to see a weapon appear in the man's hand just like Sora's and his could. _Maybe they don't have sheaths in this world,_ Luffy thought and watched as the man slung his heavy looking iron sword over his shoulder. "All right, then have it your way." He slashed across his body fast with only his right hand and didn't drop the huge sword, showing off his strength.

Luffy punched his fists together and spread his feet apart. Sora started running forward at the same time as the taller man and they both swung their swords at the same time. Whoever this man was, he possessed inhuman strength and his sword knocked right past Sora's Keyblade, knocking it out of the way so he had a direct slash on Sora's body.

The boy flew backwards and landed next to Luffy who sprinted ahead now with both arms pulled back behind him. The man he was fighting didn't have that usual first move mistake when he showed off his powers. He had been fighting all types of enemies for years, so seeing a kid who could stretch his arms wasn't going to surprise him now. "Gum Gum," Luffy shot his arms forward just as the man leapt up in the air. "Bazooka!" His arms extended out and almost hit the jumping man's feet, but that was what the taller man was aiming for.

He landed gracefully on Luffy's outstretched arms and started running forward. The rubber man snapped his arms back into place, but that only pulled his enemy closer to him faster and the man plowed the point of the blade into Luffy's chest. For a split second, the teen panicked. Pain shot through his body and he thought it was over, until he realized that the blade wasn't actually pointy, but rounded at the tip. It was still sharp at the edges though and he felt his skin get scratched as he was thrown back by the force of the blow.

Leon smacked his sword back down to his right and turned to Sora who was staring at the rubber man who flew into one of the tables outside the empty restaurant. The man frowned, _he looked like he was stronger than this kid, but he fell for an attack like that?_ He held up his left hand as Sora sprinted at him and the boy didn't have time to react as a fireball shot out from Leon's fist and slammed into him head-on.

This time, the kid had a much harder time pulling himself to his feet, _I'm on my last legs here. Luffy, what are you doing?!_ He looked over and watched as a wooden table flew up in the air and high into the sky as it shattered. Leon looked over as well, not expecting the kid to be defeated in one attack.

Steam came out of Luffy's nose like he was a bull and he ran forwards while holding an arm back. His right arm twisted over and over as he ran and his opponent turned to him, seeing all the force that was going to be put into that attack. He knew he shouldn't try to dodge it, so the man used speed he hadn't demonstrated in the fight so far, and he raced forward to meet the teenager with the pulled back arm.

Luffy was about to call out a new powerful attack when his enemy appeared right in front of his face. "Shi..." his bottom jaw was kicked up by one of Leon's feet, he didn't know which one. The man jumped up and slammed the backside of the sword down on top of Luffy's head, sending him crashing down into the cement. He tried to bring down his sword again to knock the guy out, but as his sword was descending, the younger kid reached him and held out his Keyblade.

Somehow, this time, Sora was able to keep the weapon in his grip so that the tall guy's blade wouldn't get to hit his friend. "Oh no, you, don't!" He shouted and pushed up hard, knocking the opponent off balance for him to finish off with a combo of attacks and one final swipe that knocked the man flying backwards.

Leon skid on the pavement and then kicked his legs up and landed back on his feet. The man smirked at the kid and then ran back forwards. This time when he struck, Sora jumped backwards to avoid his attack, _he's learning,_ the man thought as he held up a hand and the boy instinctively dodged, knowing another fireball was about to come.

Luffy pushed himself to his feet and shook off some dirt on him as he growled back at Leon who was in a heated battle with Sora. "Gum Gum," he shouted and got the man's attention as he stuck his leg out to the side.

"You really shouldn't announce when you're going to attack," Leon yelled at him and shot a fireball right in the path of where his leg started to whip around.

"Mu... OW! Hot hot hot hot," Luffy's leg burst into flames as he started his whip and he let his leg snap back so he could pat it down and put out the fire. He felt someone right in front of him and looked up fast, seeing that whoever he was fighting wasn't playing around any longer.

Leon frowned, the Keybearer wasn't as weak as he looked, but he wasn't what they needed either. And this guy, he was just plain annoying, "Sleep," he commanded and swung the back of his blade into Luffy's neck. The pirate thought his head would extend out to the side so that he could snap it back with a Gum Gum Bell, but when the metal hit his skin, he felt pain, real pain. Then it was gone as his knees crumpled and his eyes closed.

The glowing blue light on the edge of Leon's blade disappeared and he held the blade instead of the hilt before slamming it back between his arm and torso. The hilt sticking out slammed straight into the chest of the kid charging at him. Sora oofed and then stumbled backwards on his feet.

_Kairi,_ he thought as his eyes closed and darkness surrounded him.

**A/N Hey everyone and thanks for reading another chapter. A few things I'd like to mention. One: Don't be mad that Luffy got his butt kicked. Remember, he was in a new world fighting people whose abilities he'd never seen before. Also, he just came from Alabasta, the Rifle was an attack that he was trying for the first time here, which yes! It does mean that he will still be improving his Devil Fruit Powers even if he can use a Keyblade. Who knows, maybe he'll get Gear Second or Third sometime soon too :). Two: I'm really into this story right now so I'm going to keep writing and posting every day if I can, so enjoy, there are a lot of chapters coming!**

**Also, I'd love to hear some reviews telling me what you guys think of the fight scene and predictions/ideas you have for the story.**


	4. Chapter 4

Leon stared down at the two unconscious bodies in front of him. He put away his sword and tilted his head, noticing someone standing behind him. "Hey, you found it. Nice going Leon."

The girl behind him was wearing short tan pants and a green top that had blue straps over the shoulders and was high enough that her entire stomach was showing. She was wearing orange gloves and a yellow scarf making her quite the colorful kid. The sixteen year old girl had a ninja headband on and smiled at the man in front of her.

Leon sighed and looked at the kids he just fought. "They weren't that bad, that one there's pretty strong, could probably fight the Heartless with his fists if he practiced. Still," he took a look at their limp bodies, "It looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse."

sc

"Come on lazy bum, wake up," Sora's eyes were closed and he felt he was sitting on something soft. His head felt a little funny and he sat up before opening his eyes. "You okay?" He looked at the girl next to her bed and smiled wide. _Kairi!_ She was wearing her white tank top and her beautiful blue eyes stared back at him as he sat on the bed.

"I guess," he answered her.

"Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade," the girl continued and Sora stared at her funny. "But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade." _My heart?_ He thought back on the guy who fell down and lost his heart to that black void, _They want to do that, to me?_

He smiled up at her, "I'm so glad that you're okay Kairi."

"Kairi? Who are you talking about?" Sora was confused at what the girl who was obviously Kairi was talking about, though her voice started to change and he wasn't so sure anymore. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie."

"Huh?" a bright light covered his eyes and he rubbed them to see a girl with short black hair leaning towards him with a small smile. Her black irises stared into his blue ones for a second and then she turned her head.

"I think you might've overdone it Squall." The tall man who beat up Sora before stepped into the room.

"That's Leon," he corrected her.

"The Keyblade," Sora said as he looked at his weapon leaning up against the wall next to this Leon/Squall person.

The girl who called herself Yuffie started walking away from him, "Yeah, we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them." Leon said with crossed arms, "But it won't work for long."

The three of them turned as they heard a loud yawn, "That was a good nap." Luffy said with his arms stretching up in the air. "I guess if you were doing it to help, I won't be too mad." The pirate said, having heard the last bit of their conversation as his eyes opened.

Leon ignored him, "Still hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one."

"Chosen one?" Sora asked and then pointed over at his friend in the straw hat who was sitting up on a bed like his own. "But Luffy has one too," he said and the two people in front of him stared in disbelief for a few seconds, but they didn't see a trace of lying in the kid's face.

Luffy grinned at the man and thought the word while holding out a hand. His black Keyblade appeared in a flash of light and he snickered, "Shishishishi," he swung it around before putting it down next to him.

Leon frowned and picked up Sora's weapon off the wall, _If both of them can do it._ He swung the blade to the side, only for it to vanish in a flash of light. It reappeared in Sora's left hand causing the kid to jump a little and for Luffy to laugh out loud. The man didn't seem too annoyed though and just stepped forward, "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Why don't you start making sense! What's going on here," Sora exclaimed. Luffy wasn't the only one still a little sore from the beating they just took.

Luffy got up and walked over to sit next to Sora as the girl in front of them smiled and started talking, something she looked like she enjoyed doing a lot. "So there are a lot of worlds out there other than your own. Before recently, they've never been connected, but now they are. All thanks to the Heartless."

"The Heartless?" Sora asked.

"Are those the little black thingies?" Luffy asked and the girl giggled.

"Yep, that's them," she replied.

Leon took over, "Those without hearts."

Luffy sweatdropped, _duh, what else would a Heart-less be? What is he, stupid?_ The man laughed to himself as the girl started speaking again.

"The darkness in people's hearts- that's what attracts them." Yuffie stated.

"And there is darkness within every heart." Leon added with a look at the two boys to show that this included them.

"Hey," Yuffie said, getting off of the subject to brighten the mood a little. "Have you heard of someone named Ansem?"

"Nope," Luffy replied. Sora shook his head too and the others frowned.

"His reports on the Heartless were very thorough, but they got lost all over the different worlds." Leon said and then looked at the blades in either boy's hands. "He knew about the Keyblade, and said that it was the weapon that could save the worlds from the Heartless."

"So... this is the key?" Sora held up his Keyblade and stared at it with a new appreciation.

"Exactly," Yuffie said with a nod.

Leon was glad the kid was catching on fast, though the older teen next to him started frowning. "The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade. That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what." Leon started walking back to the other end of the room.

"Well, I didn't ask for this," Sora said, wondering why all of this was falling on him. He was just a kid.

"The Keyblade chooses its master," Yuffie said as she leaned back next to Luffy on the edge of the bed. "And it chose you," she said and then remembered the kid between her and Sora, "and you."

"So, tough luck," Leon told him.

"No," Luffy stated and the other three all turned to him as he dropped the Keyblade.

"What?" Leon yelled over at him, "You think this is a game where you can just drop it and everything will be fine. The fate of every world is at stake here. You don't get to say no."

"No," Luffy repeated, "I need to go find my friends."

Sora wasn't surprised at Luffy's reaction, but he was taking what the others said much more seriously. "How did this happen?" He knew he was supposed to be looking for Kairi and Riku, since they weren't there with him, but he was blanking on something. "I was in my room," _the storm._ "Wait a minute! What happened to my home? My island?"

Luffy stared at the kid who seemed to have forgotten and he felt bad for him. The memory of his friends getting taken away one by one was still fresh in his mind and he wanted them back sooner rather than later. "Why aren't my friends here?" Luffy asked the two in front of them, "Didn't they come to this world with us?"

"Riku! Kairi!" Sora was slowly remembering the monsters being on his island as well, and then the sight of his island getting ripped apart flashed in his mind and he fell down to his knees.

"You know what?" Leon started in a grim tone, "I really don't know."

_Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, I'm going to find you._

_All the worlds are at stake? I wish you were here Riku, I need your help. And you too Kairi._

The room suddenly shook as a black ball appeared in the center of it and a Heartless in a suit of armor appeared in front of them. "Yuffie go!" Leon shouted and the girl nodded, running into the next room where Aerith was with the Disney Castle envoys.

Sora jumped behind Leon with his Keyblade drawn and Luffy punched his fist into his open hand. "Sora, Luffy, let's go!" Leon charged at the thing in front of them and slashed it so hard that his sword went all the way across his body and knocked the monster back, but he followed up with another attack coming down and his sword cut a hole in the floor after slashing down the thing's body.

The three of them fought off the monster, but as soon as Leon struck the finishing blow, three of the small ones appeared as well. They ran out of the cramped room and jumped through the window down to the square below where monsters, or Heartless, were forming all around them. "Let's kick their asses!" Luffy shouted as he lifted up a leg high in the air, "Gum Gum," they stared in awe as his foot shot high above the buildings around him, "ONO!" He brought down his foot like an ax and it slammed down on two Heartless, squishing them instantly and they exploded into fragments. They dropped some money, but the boys ignored it and just started fighting the mob in front of them.

Sora slashed across one small monster and then took off to continue the combo on the next. He attacked right as the thing swiped at him, and their blows knocked each other back without causing any damage to either of them. The boy was then hit from behind by one of the armored ones that appeared, but Leon slashed it in half to help him. "Thanks," the kid said and Leon nodded before talking to them both.

"The hordes won't stop coming as long as you wield the Keyblades," even though Luffy hadn't summoned his blade, they were still attracted to the rubber man. "The only way to stop them is to take out their boss. He must be hiding somewhere around here."

"We could cover more ground if we split up," Sora suggested and then started running ahead. He knocked two small Heartless to the side as the other two stared after him and he vanished down a corridor. More enemies filled in the area he just ran through and they watched in slight surprise.

_That was pretty brave kid,_ Leon thought as he blocked an enemy and then slashed it as it fell back from the parry.

Luffy thought along the same lines and followed the kid's example, "Follow me you idiots," he taunted at the black things and then extended an arm over to a lightpost. He grabbed it and rocketed himself into the air where he flew over a building and almost landed in a canal. _Whoa, too close, _he thought as he wobbled on the edge and caught his balance.

While he was standing there though, more Heartless started to appear, but these were new ones. Red and blue monsters started appearing in the air, with the signature black faces and red eyes that gave away they were Heartless. "So cool," Luffy whispered as he pulled his fists back, not having time to admire the little creatures.

As he swung his fist forward, the blue one's antennae glowed and a burst of blue light shot out and froze his fist sending pain to course through Luffy's arm. "Yow! You bastard," he didn't care that they were cool anymore and flung his other fist forward just for the other red creature to glow and shoot flames at him. His hand was knocked back by the impact of the fireball on it and he felt heat soar across his arm.

The pirate grumbled as these were far range enemies. The ones he'd been fighting so far were close-ranged fighters, so he could fight them that way, having a longer reach than any of them. _Looks like I've got to try something else,_ he held out his hands, _KEYBLADE I SUMMON THEE!_ The blade appeared in his hands and he started laughing at how he did it before having to leap in the air as another blast of blue light and red light landed at his feet.

He looked down and saw a scorch mark where he was a second ago, "Take this," he reached to the side of the creatures and grabbed a pole. He shot out of the way as another blast of cold shot at him and then slingshotted himself around the pole so he went flying at the enemies faster than they could charge their attacks. He reached them and sliced hard with his weapon, knocking them both backwards, but not finishing them. He was annoyed, he'd never really tried fighting with a weapon before except for the metal one he used to use as a kid. _How does Sora do those cool combo thingies?_ He thought about what the kid did last time and as he jumped over the red attack flying his way, he swiped down at the monster, then left, and finally down from the upper right, slashing completely down its body and cutting it in half.

_Cool,_ he thought as the little money orbs that flew out of the destroyed body went right into the pouch Cid gave him and Sora. He turned to the blue monster with a smirk. His smirk vanished as two more blue ones appeared and three red ones behind it, all of which were charging their magic attacks. He laughed for a second and then turned around, sprinting away to try and find the boss. _They just keep coming!_

On the other side of the Second District, Sora reached a large door like the one that separated the first and second. He read the sign up above, 'Third District,' _haven't checked there yet._ He ran through the door and mainly tried to ignore the weird monsters appearing around him. A yellow one appeared right in the staircase and guessing from what the red and blue ones did, he knew he had to dodge the lightning bolt that was coming. Right as the blast of yellow light was about to hit him, he dodged to the right and avoided it.

He slid under the yellow beast while sticking his Keyblade up and the silver part sliced through the monster. He finished the slide and then kicked off the top of the staircase, landing at the bottom and walking out into the empty square in front of him. "Hmm, no big bosses here," he looked around and saw a few other Heartless standing around the edges of the square, but they vanished in a second and he wondered what was going on.

"Wawawawa!" a loud quacking sound shouted from above Sora. He looked up and saw two figures screaming as they dropped down from above towards him.

"Whoa, whoaaa," he tried to back away, but the two landed right on top of him.

The kid felt two heavy bodies on top of him and moaned as he shook his head to clear his mind. There were two other moans next to his and he saw a duck's face on one side and what looked like a dog on the other, except he was holding a shield. Both animals shouted at the same time, "The key!"

Sora opened his mouth to tell them to get off, but as he did, the ground began to shake. Suddenly, two huge square pillars lifted up in front of the staircase he came down before and lifted higher than he could jump. Every exit of the square was quickly cut off and the two on top of him were just as shocked by these rising pillars.

The more powerful Heartless in the armor started appearing on the pillars and in a line in front of them. "Talk later," Sora said as he lifted to his feet, "fight now!" The other two behind him got up and one held up a staff, while the other held his shield with both hands.

Sora ran forward and started bashing these creatures that he was getting a hang of how many hits he needed to defeat them. He went straight from one to the other, and jumped to the side as a third went to punch him in the side. These were standing on two feet unlike the small pet-like ones he had to fight earlier. As he landed, he felt one about to hit him from behind, and held his breath as he waited for it. "Huh?" he turned around and saw the duck holding up a wand, and lightning shot down from the sky, killing the Heartless behind him.

He spun around fast as the next one was about to hit him, just to see the tall dog guy knock him backwards with his shield and keep plowing through as he pushed the other two to the side as well. Sora ran ahead and slashed up two of the last three before flipping over the last one's head and stabbing backwards with his weapon like Leon did to him in their earlier fight. The beast blew up and he felt the little money pieces float into Cid's pouch.

"We did it!" Donald shouted and then froze as they felt something dark above them. The three looked up and saw a bright light followed by dark purple things falling out of the sky. As they got closer, it was easy to see what they were, huge pieces of armor.

"Whoa, who's going to wear that?" Sora asked as he looked around for some large Heartless to go inside the giant purple armor that was floating in front of him. Neither of the metal boots were connected to the chestplate, and the gauntlets were just floating there as well. The armor was hollow, but one more piece was falling from the sky. A large helmet-like thing fell, but this instantly made the monster start to move, _That __**is **__the Heartless!_ Sora thought and the monster rolled its head around and lifted up its hands to attack. "Let's go!"

* * *

Luffy was back in the first district and he was looking around for a boss while constantly being attacked by different types of monsters. A large one appeared in front of him and he thought maybe he'd finally found the boss. He tried hitting it from the front with his Keyblade and his feet, but it had such great defense that he was thrown back each time he tried.

_Maybe it's slower because it's so big,_ he thought. He thought maybe it would be slower because it was so big, but then it surprised him by charging ahead at him faster than any of the others and body slammed the pirate. "Teehee," he laughed from underneath it, "That won't work on me," he squeezed as hard as he could into his body and sprang the monster off of him where it fell on its stomach, apparently too round to get up. "Cuz I'm rubber," he jumped over it and threw his arm back while twisting it, going to try this attack again, even if it failed against Leon. "Gum Gum," he finished twisting it tight and then shot it forward fast right into the monster's back, "Rifle!" His attack broke through its defenses and made it tumbled away, but it still wasn't defeated.

It turned towards him with its stomach defenses but started walking slow again. _Looks like he can't run for too long,_ Luffy dropped down behind it and before it could turn around, he slashed it with a triple attack combo with the black Keyblade in his left hand. This time when it tumbled forward, it broke apart and vanished, leaving a large piece of money in front of it. _Treasure!_ Luffy ran towards it and it went into his seemingly bottomless pouch.

"Luffy!" the boy spun around and saw Leon running right towards him with a small army of Heartless chasing behind him.

His mouth went wide, "But I just beat the boss," he said and then froze as he saw two more of those large guys running with the pack behind Leon. "Nevermind!" He shouted and turned to run, but right as Leon reached the square, the army stopped chasing the man with the large iron sword.

"What's going on?" Luffy asked as the Heartless all either dropped down into pools of darkness in the ground, or flipped into the air and vanished in a ball of black.

"Look behind you," Leon said, no longer looking at where the army was. Luffy turned around and his eyes went wide as he saw how large his shadow had become. **"Don't be afraid..."** a voice said in his mind, and one glance at Leon showed that the man wasn't hearing it. The large shadow started to climb out of the ground and the pirate's eyes went wide, he was seriously freaking out now.

Leon seemed unnerved as well as Luffy's shadow grew larger and pulled out of the ground behind him. The pirate was now staring at his shadow as its arms pressed against the ground and lifted its entire upper half out. Both men started taking steps back. **"Don't be afraid,"** it repeated in his mind as the shadow was looking less and less like him every second. It lifted off the ground and grew larger and larger as it bulged with huge black muscles and the black hair started to turn into tentacles. His shadow disconnected from him and lifted higher until it was a massive hulking form towering over him and Leon.

It looked similar to the one he had to fight with Sora on the island as it broke apart, but this one had a black version of a large straw hat on top of its tentacle-like hair. Its legs were all scraggly and pointy at the end, **"And don't forget,"** Luffy stopped backing up and held up his blade and a fist, he wouldn't be afraid of this monster, the voice in his head was telling him so.

Leon saw the determined look on Luffy's face and stopped backing towards the large door connecting the third and first district. It was closed off for now, but Leon thought he might have to open it if worst came to worst. _This could be the boss,_ the monster above them didn't make any noise, but it lifted up a fist and slammed it down towards the two.

Luffy grabbed onto a nearby light and pulled himself away, while his new "friend" leapt on to the monster's arm and started climbing up it. Small black monsters appeared out of the black hole in the ground, and a few of them started climbing up the arm as well, chasing after Leon. Luffy saw what the man was trying and had to stop the monsters from getting to him. "Gum Gum Rocket," he grabbed another pole and slung himself forward, slamming straight into two dog-like Heartless chasing after Leon and shouting, "Gum Gum Substitute." He stopped moving while the two he knocked into flew off the arm and vanished in midair.

"Luffy?" Leon said, turning to the rubber man. The pirate was holding up his Keyblade and facing the oncoming enemies up the arm. "Got it," he understood the plan and was surprised the teen was staying level-headed enough in the situation not to attack it straight on.

The pirate swung his key down into the arm of the monster a few times as the Heartless came at him. This made his giant shadow Heartless growl and lift up his other hand, grabbing the pirate. Luffy struggled to get out of its grip, while Leon turned around and shouted to him. He had just reached the head and kept swiping at the monster, but this was seriously pissing it off considering the large amount of damage he was dealing to it.

The monster reached up with the hand that was shoved in the ground and Heartless stopped coming out of it. When the older man jumped away from the head to swipe at the hand holding Luffy, he was caught by its other hand and the Heartless lifted them up, glaring at them both in front of his face.

Both the twenty five year old and the teenager stopped struggling and looked to each other. They grinned and Leon held up his right gloved hand, while Luffy stretched both of his backwards, forming the Keyblade in his right hand to deal extra damage when finishing. "Gum Gum," Leon was annoyed that he was still shouting out his attacks when there were more important things to be done, but he let Luffy finish before firing his fireball, "Keyblade Bazooka!" Both of his arms shot forward and his left hit the monster in the face the same spot as Leon's fireball. His right hand with the blade nailed it in its left yellow glowing eye and it finally made a sound.

"RAARRR!" it brought back both of its hands, not yet defeated, and he threw the two fighters as hard as he could.

The two went flying through the air and spinning around in cartwheels before flying over the wall and coming down hard on the ground somewhere. Luffy shook off the attack since it didn't hurt him much, but Leon was more than a little damaged, reaching into his bag and tossing up something green. The pirate watched as the man on his knees with some scratches on his face suddenly stood up fine and his injuries just went away.

"Whoa, what was that?" he asked in amazement.

"Luffy?! Leon?!" The two spun around for the first time since landing, and their eyes went wide at what they saw. A huge moving set of armor was attacking Sora, as well as two other fighters.

"Leon!" Donald and Goofy shouted as they turned to the man. He saw the royal envoys and sprinted towards the distracted fighters. Right as they were about to be squashed by one of the giant armored hands, Leon parried it and the hand went flying to the ground.

"Attack it now, while it's vulnerable," Sora said and charged at the hand, knocking it around until it exploded in a large pile of darkness and released some green bubbles on the floor. The kid stepped into them, and felt the wounds he received earlier in the fight start to fade. _They're like mini-potions!_

"Why did you come flying in like that Luffy?" Goofy asked the man in the straw hat who was staring at them. It was the second time today that the man had fallen from the sky right in front of him.

"Oh yeah," Luffy said and then casually pointed over his shoulder, "because of that." The three who were already in the third district looked up and their eyes popped wide as they saw the huge black monster putting a foot on top of the large wall. It hoisted itself over and dropped down behind the floating suit of armor.

"Uhh," Donald mumbled, taking a few steps back. "What is that?!" He shouted in a high-pitched voice.

They all looked up and saw the brim of a black hat on top of the monster and then looked over at Luffy who was glaring at it. Sora recognized it instantly from his dream, and from the end of his island. _Another one?_ He got ready to fight it, before the remaining metal glove went flying at him and knocked him off balance.

The giant Heartless shoved both hands into the ground, and Heartless started pouring out of it. "This isn't good," Leon said as he looked around. The small Heartless weren't the only ones appearing this time; now the suit of armor guys, and the small floating ones that could use magic were appearing too. The fighter with the longsword knew he had to come up with a plan fast, "Sora, Goofy," he called out and the boy with the spiky hair saw that the dog responded to that other name, "finish off the guy you were fighting, you know how to beat him now. Donald," the scared duck gulped and looked over at Leon, "use your magic to keep the small fries off of us. Luffy you're with me, help take down the big guy."

"I don't take orders," the pirate retorted with a wide smirk and he sucked it a large amount of air. The others stared at him with wide-eyes as his body got larger like a balloon and he twisted around until he looked like a coil. He opened his mouth and flew up in the air with a large release of air until he was flying straight at the shadow Heartless's face. "Gum Gum, STORM!" His fists flew up faster than his Gattling Gun and he bashed the monster in the face over and over again.

Leon sighed, the man wasn't good at taking orders, but at least he was being helpful. "Hey Leon," the man turned his head and watched as two girls dropped onto the battlefield from atop the stone pillars lifting up. "We'll help too," Yuffie said while giving him a thumbs up. Donald and Goofy saw the girl in the pink dress who told them about the Heartless earlier and Aerith smiled at them as well before waving her hand and healing the duck who was covered in scratches.

"Whoa," he said, stretching out his arms as they felt fine. "Raawawawa!" he shouted as he ran forward and swung his wand around.

Sora jumped up in the air and did a combo attack on the head of the suit of armor, damaging it, but not crippling it like when he attacked the gauntlet before. A foot lifted up to hit him, but Goofy jumped in the way and blocked with his shield. It dropped to the ground unmoving, and they took this moment to attack.

Yuffie finished slashing an armored Heartless with her kunai and then backflipped towards the stopped piece of the boss. She pulled out a large shuriken with four blades and spun it around before throwing it at the boot. Sora slashed down at it and the boot exploded, making him stare at his blade, wondering if he really destroyed it in one attack. Then he lifted his head up and saw Goofy standing there with his shield raised and Yuffie on the other side of the boot, snapping her shuriken back down, showing she had just used it. "Oh," he said, turning back to the suit of armor that was now looking a bit frantic.

The remaining arm and leg of the suit of armor started flailing around and slamming into anything that moved. Donald was holding up his wand casting a lightning bolt down on a four legged Heartless chasing after Leon who was slashing at the shadow Heartless's lowered head. One of the flailing pieces of armor knocked into him and threw him into the rubber man who was knocked over.

After Luffy finished his Gum Gum Storm, he landed and had hurt the monster enough for it to bow its head. It was now getting back up, but while it was down, Leon and Luffy did enough damage to it to make it worried. A large circle of darkness appeared on the center of the black form, a more liquid type of darkness than the solid form in front of them.

Balls of black with red cores started shooting out of the hole in its chest and flying towards them Both men tried dodging but there were too many coming towards them and were each hit and thrown backwards into the wall. Yuffie snapped her head as Leon went flying past her, "Squall!" she shouted and then the flailing gauntlet knocked into her and she dropped her weapon as she skid across the ground.

The girl landed right in the middle of a pile of Heartless that jumped on her using the opportunity to attack. "Yuffie!" Aerith shouted. She was almost as tall as Leon and had brown hair that lifted up over her head and parted in the middle before flowing down behind her back. She ran ahead, but Sora was there first and jumped right over the girl, standing in the middle of the Heartless.

The boy with the Keyblade was much more enticing to them and they all started to attack. Even the bosses seemed to focus on him now, and as Luffy and Leon sat up from where they were knocked back, they saw Sora completely surrounded with a giant metal fist and a huge shadow fist coming down at him.

"Stop!" Luffy shouted at them but the monsters kept fighting Sora who couldn't even hold up his blade anymore, but wouldn't let them get past him to Yuffie who was lying on the ground under him. Luffy tried dragging himself out of the hole he was in in the wall and stumbled forward, "Stop!" The fists were only a few feet above Sora's head now, "I said STOP!" Luffy screamed and ran forward. He didn't realize it, but Aerith and Leon each saw a burst of energy shoot out from out of Luffy like a shockwave. It made them feel dizzy, and the girl in the pink dress almost fell off her feet, but managed to stay awake.

Every one of the Heartless froze though. The small ones surrounding him and even the armored ones and the floating red, blue, and yellow ones, all vanished in balls of black darkness. The two fists above Sora's head stayed there, hovering as if the monster's were deciding whether or not to attack.

"Quickly, Aerith," Leon shouted and snapped her out of her trance. Donald was in the middle of fighting against other magic Heartless and they all vanished in front of him. He turned and saw Goofy's enemies disappeared as well. The two of them turned and took this opportunity to charge at the suit of armor. Its head started spinning around and it pulled back a foot, no longer phased by the large blast that Luffy released with his shout.

The pirate ran straight over to Sora as Aerith cast a cure spell on him and Yuffie. The kid was stumbling on his feet, but a green light surrounded him and he felt much better, better than before even. The girl below them was still knocked out but she didn't look in any sort of mortal danger, so Leon ran over and grabbed her, carrying her away as Sora and Luffy both focused on the giant looming above them.

"RARRR!" he roared again, different from its normal quiet self. For some reason, it staying quiet was a lot scarier, the roar made it sound like it was frustrated which gave the kids encouragement.

Donald and Goofy were each pummeling one of the last two appendages of the suit of armor and they exploded at the same time. They turned and watched as the behemoth punched down at Luffy and Sora and the boys jumped up on its arm, climbing up and dodging all the black and red balls of light coming at them.

The two crisscrossed each other's path over and over as they climbed the arm, jumping over black balls and creatures that were sprouting up all over its arm. "Now!" Sora shouted and Luffy grinned, the two of them leaping from its shoulder right in front of its face. They each started slashing as hard as they could: to the right, then left, then uppercut, and when both of their arms were held up, they brought them down in one last powerful attack, slamming straight through the beast's head down to its chin and gravity finally took over, dropping the boys down to the ground.

They were both panting, Sora a lot harder than Luffy, having been unable to dodge a few of the explosions sent at him as he charged. Goofy and Donald were slammed by the torso of the armor monster and the others all turned to it angrily, "Just go away!" Luffy shouted and shot out one foot from where he stood. The foot slammed into the head of the monster and it started to shake furiously.

At the same time, the behemoth shadow Heartless was trembling and a large black hole appeared in the ground below it. The others stumbled backwards away from the edge of the darkness as tendrils came out and covered the monster's bent legs. It reached up an arm as its body got sucked in and finally it vanished in the dark pit, just for the circle to go away and leave an unscathed pavement below it.

The suit of armor Heartless was shaking harder and harder until it froze. The head rolled off of the torso and thudded on the ground. Out from the hollow center of the torso, a bright light shined up towards the night sky. A glowing sparkly blue heart floated out of the creature and vanished in the sky. The rest of it faded away to darkness and then poof, it was gone.

**A/N Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Sorry for not posting it earlier, but I came down with some weird illness that had me in bed for days. It really sucked but today is the first day I'm feeling even a little up for writing in a while. Thanks for reading and leave a review telling me what you think, or any predictions of who the first crew member they'll find on their journey will be. Next time we're heading off to Wonderland!**


	5. Chapter 5

"So you were looking for us?" Sora asked Donald and Goofy. The two envoys from the Disney castle gave a quick explanation of what they were doing when the battle finished. Now the whole group was standing in the third district, most feeling pretty tired from the battle.

Donald nodded and said, "But the king didn't say anything about _two_ Keybearers."

"They too," Leon started, "have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade."

Goofy looked at the two teens in front of him and smiled wide, "Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel."

"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi..." Sora muttered.

"Well my crew isn't here," Luffy said while scratching his chin, "so they must be at one of these other worlds."

Donald grinned, "Of course they will be, and so will your friends," Sora lifted his head and looked at him hopefully.

"You sure?" Goofy whispered to the magician.

"Who knows? But we need them to come with us to help us find the king." Donald replied in an even quieter voice.

_What are they whispering about?_ Sora thought and looked up at Luffy. The taller teen was staring up at the stars. His focus was on finding his friends, but if that meant he got to go on an adventure, then oh well. He smirked wide.

"Sora, Luffy, go with them," Leon started again. He was standing behind them with Yuffie and Aerith at his sides. "Especially if you want to find your friends."

Luffy was ready, but the kid next to him bowed his head again. _Kairi, Riku, where are you guys?_ "Yeah, I guess." Luffy looked at the kid who had a miserable epression on his face and was about to punch him on top of the head when Donald spoke.

"But you can't come along looking like that. Understand?" The boy seemed confused, "No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"

Goofy added in, "Yeah, you gotta look funny, like us!"

The duck pushed Goofy away and corrected him, "This boat runs on happy faces."

"Happy?" Everyone looked over at Sora who kept his head pointed at the ground. He started to shake and then his head snapped up towards Goofy and Donald, shocking them and making Luffy start cracking up. "Cheeesssseeee," he smiled so wide that his teeth were showing ear to ear and when he realized the other two were just staring at him he stopped, only for them to join in with Luffy's incessant laughter.

"That's one funny face," Goofy said while holding his stomach from all the laughter.

Sora smiled genuinely now, "Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys."

"Awesome, I'm going too," Luffy said, only now coming down from his laughter.

"Donald Duck."

"Name's Goofy."

"I'm Luffy."

"And I'm Sora."

Each of them put their hands in the middle so they were on top of each other, "All for one, one for all," Goofy exclaimed and just like that, a pact was made.

* * *

After heading back to the first district and saying goodbye to Cid, the group was finally ready to leave Traverse Town. When they got to the huge door that was supposedly the exit of the world, Donald stopped and turned to the new members of their group. "I almost forgot," the duck exclaimed and tossed something up in the air. It shimmered and rained down yellow light over the two Keyblade users.

"What was that?" Sora asked as he looked at his hand turning it back and forth.

"It dropped after you defeated the suit of armor Heartless," Donald explained. "Now you can use magic," he added and the other two's eyes went wide. "Try using Fire, it's the one I just gave you."

Luffy grinned and held out his hands, _Now I'm like Ace!_ He tried shooting off flames from his fingertips, but nothing was happening. Suddenly a ball of fire flew past his face and slammed into the wall behind him. He turned and stared at Sora who was holding his Keyblade out with smoke coming from the tip of it.

"Cool," the kid said. He pointed it somewhere else and shouted, "Fire!" A fireball shot out of his Keyblade. "Fire! Fire!" The fourth fireball never came and he stared at his Keyblade, wondering what was wrong, and why he felt so drained.

"Hey," Donald yelled at him, "don't use up all your magic in one go. It takes a while for it to replenish, so try not to rely on it too much."

"Also," Goofy added and threw something else up in the air, "I found this next to the broken armor too. Try dodging by rolling to the sides," he told them. The teens didn't know why this would be useful; they could dodge already, but when they attempted to dodge roll to the left, it happened in an instant and they were right back on their feet.

"Whoa," Luffy said and then started rolling all over the place. "Weeee!"

"Alright, let's go!" Donald said and they opened up the large door to Traverse Town. The other two took a break from testing out their new powers to walk after Donald and stare wide-eyed at the sight before them. Traverse Town was on the edge of a dark void, nothing holding it up except for the large piece of island below it.

_What is going on?_ Sora thought as he stared around.

"When all the worlds became connected, they started to look like this from the outside," Goofy explained as they walked over to the edge.

For the first time, Sora and Luffy saw the ship-like thing sitting in front of them. Sora sweatdropped while Luffy's eyes went wide with wonder and turned into stars. "That's our gummy ship," Donald said and they walked over, the top glass part opening up.

The group jumped inside and the first thing they did was start arguing over who got to drive. They wound up coming up with an order that each time they got in, a different person would get to drive it and then they lifted off.

"Maybe we shouldn't have let Luffy go first!" Sora shouted as he tumbled around the cockpit, bumping heads with the magician whose eyes turned into swirls from how dizzy he was. Only halfway through the journey, and it wasn't going well.

* * *

"Ooh," Donald spun around as they fell down the endless hole and finally the group landed on their feet.

"What is this place?" Sora asked, looking around at the strange walls around them.

"Oh my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" The group looked around and then their heads tilted down towards the little white furball running past them. The rabbit was wearing clothes, (but at this point, travelling with a clothed talking dog and duck, Sora and Luffy were used to it) but he had a pocketwatch in his hand that was almost as big as he was himself.

"A rabbit?" Luffy tilted his head to the side and stared after it.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there." The bunny was running down a corridor past them and since there wasn't any other path to take, the group started walking after him. He was a small creature so each of their steps matched four of his waddling sprints. "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen she'll have my head for sure!"

"After him!" Donald called out as the rabbit turned a corner and was out of sight. They reached a door and opened it, only to find a smaller door inside, followed by a smaller one, and one even smaller than that.

When they finally got through the door, they found themselves staring at the rabbit, only he was smaller than before. They watched him run over to a small door in the wall and go in before it closed behind him.

Sora bent down in front of the door and wondered out loud, "How did he get so small?" Luffy was thinking the same thing and looking around the room to find a way to do the same thing.

"No, you're simply too big." Everyone in the room jumped backwards as the doorknob of the tiny door the rabbit ran through started talking to them. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."

"Good morning," Goofy waved at it.

"Good night. I need a bit more sleep." The doorknob yawned and they didn't have much time.

"Wait, what do we need to do to get small?" Sora asked.

"Why don't you try the bottle over there," he finished and then passed out again.

The world travelers stared over at the table as two bottles appeared on top of it and they walked over. One bottle had the word 'small' on it, while the other said 'large.' "Alright, let's go!" Luffy grabbed the small bottle and drank it. Somehow, him doing so affected the rest of them and in a puff of smoke, they all shrank down to tiny size.

"Ah!" Donald exclaimed.

"Come on, let's go!" Luffy shouted and jumped off the table, running towards the door with the funny doorknob.

"Wait," Goofy said as Luffy was about to reach it. "He's asleep. Shouldn't we look for another way in?"

Luffy turned back to the tall dog-thing and then spun to face the doorknob. He opened his mouth wide and took in a large breath of air. "WAKE UP!" He shouted and then started cracking up as the doorknob's eyes shot open and it yelped in panic.

The door swung open for them and Luffy ran through with the others right behind him. "I guess that's one way to do it," Sora said to Donald with a shrug.

The four of them walked through the door and stepped up to, what looked like a set of playing cards, only these were all carrying spears and axes. They glared at the newcomers, but moved aside for them to see what was going on up ahead. The group found themselves in a garden of some kind, with a courtroom set up in the front of it.

"Look, it's the rabbit," Luffy pointed and they watched as the bunny climbed up a spiral staircase and started playing a trumpet.

"Court is now in session!" the bunny shouted. It was wearing a red jacket over its orange tuxedo, and he had a monocle below his right eye.

There was a young girl in the middle of the courtroom. She was wearing a blue and white dress, and had long blonde hair with a black bow in it. "I'm on trial?" she questioned in shock, "But why?"

The rabbit continued, "Hey Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!"

"Who's the fat old hag?" Luffy asked Donald and the two cards closest to him jumped away with shocked looks on their faces. There was a woman in the judge's chair, and she had black and red royal attire on to match the golden crown atop her head.

"That is the Queen you are referring to," the Nine of Spades corrected Luffy.

"You'll get us all beheaded if she hears you saying that," the Four of Diamonds added in fear.

The queen started the court and the others all watched to see what would happen. "This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is... because I say so, that's why!"

"That is so unfair!" the girl pleaded.

Luffy started glaring at the queen with disgust in his eyes and as Donald turned to ask him a question, he stumbled a few paces backwards. "L-Luffy?" he asked and the other two turned to see the pirate giving the woman such a nasty look that it could make a man piss himself. He took a step forward and the cards on either side of him saw the look he was giving the queen and began to panic.

"What are you doing?"

"Are you mad!?"

The queen was still yelling at the poor little girl who was receiving no fair trial at all, "Well, have you anything to say in your defense?"

Luffy continued walking down the path towards the woman at the end of the garden. _Sabo._ The thought of any leader taking advantage of their power like this made the pirate in the straw hat furious.

Sora saw his friend walking with no plans on stopping and started following him. The other two looked at each other and then started chasing after them.

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong! You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so, so mean!" That was not the correct answer for the girl to give.

"SILENCE! You dare defy me?"

"Luffy stop," Donald begged with the taller teen, grabbing at his arm and trying to stop him from going any further. "We can't get involved with other worlds."

"Yeah, since we're outsiders, that would be muddling," Goofy said.

"Meddling," the duck corrected him.

"I don't care," Luffy stated.

"Yeah, I think we should help her too," Sora added and the others gulped and just followed the teenagers ahead.

"I find the defendant," the queen shouted, "guilty as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart," Sora gasped, _the Heartless!_ "Off with her head!"

"Hold it right there!" Sora ran right past Luffy who was winding back a fist and pushed his way to the center of the court. Ignoring all the yells from the queen, Sora started, "Excuse me. But we know who the real culprit is!"

"Uh huh, it's the Heartl..." Goofy clamped his mouth shut, remembering that was supposed to be a secret.

"Anyway," Sora started back up, "she's not the one you're looking for."

The queen looked bored by these interruptions, "Nonsense! Have you any proof?" The kid couldn't think of anything so the queen shouted, "Until you return here with proof of her innocence, she'll be held in one of the cages with that other girl."

The group turned over and watched as Alice was brought over to a cage on the right side of the judge's table. They looked to the other side and saw a different cage with a red curtain over it.

"Wait, that's not fair, where are we going to find the evidence around here?" Sora exclaimed.

"Come on Sora, we'll just have to look around for it," Goofy tried to cheer him up.

"No," Luffy said and the others all turned to the pirate whose straw hat was shading his eyes.

For the first time, the Queen saw the thin man in the red shirt unbuttoned down the middle. His expression unnerved her, and she didn't like that at all. "You! Stop making such an aggravating face or I'll have you beheaded!"

"Luffy you can't meddle, it's against the rules," Sora urged.

"Good thing I'm a pirate then," he said and his hat lifted up so they could all see his eyes, "I don't like rules." He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Let the girl go you Fat," all the cards dropped their jaws, "Old," the rabbit stumbled backwards and fell off the platform he'd played the trumpet from, "HAG!" The girl in the cage started giggling while the queen herself went red in the face from anger.

"LUFFY?!" everyone spun their heads towards the cage opposite the blonde girl's. The pirate captain recognized the voice instantly and shot an arm out to the cage, making everyone there's eye pop to see his stretching ability.

He ripped the curtain off of the cage and the widest smile spread across his face, "Nami!"

"You know the thief!? That further proves how guilty you are," Nami looked a little sheepish and Luffy started laughing that she was caught stealing something.

"Oi, get me out of here," she yelled down at him, tears welling up in her eyes. She'd been alone in this strange place for days, they said they were going to chop her head off and none of her friends were anywhere to be found. Before that curtain was ripped off, she was just waiting for her execution. _Luffy, I can't believe you actually came._ She wiped the tears and yelled down at him again.

"Forget the evidence," the Queen announced, "this is all the proof I need. Off with their heads, all of them!" The two cages on either side of her shot up in the air so that they'd be harder to reach and the garden ornaments all around sank down into the grass.

Each of the playing cards turned their weapons on the fighters. "Looks like this was unavoidable," Luffy said with a sigh.

"It was completely avoidable!" Donald and Sora shouted at him, though neither were too unhappy about having to fight the stuck up queen.

The four of them scattered around the area, fighting the playing cards and attacking the gatehouse in the middle that seemed to be controlling them. It dropped some of the money orbs and the green ones that gave them health, so it was worth it to just keep kicking its ass.

"Kill them! Kill them all!"

"Why don't you just be quiet?" Sora called at the queen as he jumped up and swiped at her with his Keyblade. _Wow, she wasn't very strong at all,_ the woman was lying face first in the floor with her knickers showing in a very non-queenlike fashion.

* * *

"Hey Alice, it's Alice right?" Nami called over to the young girl in the cage next to hers.

"Oh my, they tied up your hands," Alice saw what the girl was trying to show her and could see the red marks on the orange haired woman's wrists. "Would you like me to untie them for you?"

_She's so sweet and innocent,_ "Yes, that would be great."

Alice reached her arms through the bars and Nami looked over her shoulder to watch as the girl tried untying her. Suddenly Nami's eyes bugged out and grew three times as large as a pool of darkness appeared on the cage floor underneath Alice. "Ah!" the girl yelped as a hand reached out of the darkness and grabbed her.

A woman's voice cackled from the darkness, "Seven princesses, and the first is finally in our possession." Nami couldn't believe what was happening as she stared into the darkness and could swear she saw a laughing face of a malevolent woman in its depths.

The young girl was ripped down into the darkness before the pool vanished and she was gone. Nami just stared at the spot the girl was standing a second ago and shook her head madly. _None of this can be happening. From the minute we stepped on that strange island, those Destiny Islands, nothing made sense anymore._

* * *

"We did it!" Goofy shouted as the gatehouse finally exploded in a blast of light.

"Time to get Alice and Nami," Sora said and ran over towards the cages as they dropped out of the air. The one with Nami in it didn't have a curtain courtesy of Luffy, but as the curtain around Alice's cage spun around, everyone including the Queen gasped to see the girl was gone.

"She's escaped," the Queen shouted, forgetting all about the prior insolence of these few in front of her. "Find her, NOW!" All the beaten up cards shot to their feet and scattered around to look for the girl.

"Nami, are you okay?" Luffy asked as he ripped open her cage.

"Baka!" she shouted and punched him on the head. "What kind of question is that? 'Am I okay?' Why wouldn't I be?" She glared around and stared at the kid next to Luffy, "Oh Sora, you made it off the island too huh?" _So that island was definitely real, this isn't a dream._

"You sure you're alright?" Goofy asked and the woman turned to him with an annoyed expression before blinking a few times and turning to her captain.

"Uh, who is that?"

"Oh, this is Donald, and Goofy," he pointed at the duck and the two-legged dog. "They're trying to save the universe or something."

"Oh," Nami responded.

Luffy thought of something at that moment, "Nami! Have you seen anyone else here? The last world we were at didn't have anyone, but..."

"World?" Nami asked, confused at what he was talking about.

"We'll explain on the way," Sora said, "Let's go look around for now. We have to find Alice," _and look for Riku and Kairi while we're at it._

After a few minutes of wandering around aimlessly through a jungle, and having to fight off a hundred or so Heartless that decided to attack them, Nami was convinced by anything they were saying. "So why don't you just get rid of those Keyblades?" she asked, "Then they'll stop following you right?"

"But the Keyblade is the only thing that can stop the darkness," Goofy stated.

Nami didn't look like she cared very much about the darkness consuming the worlds, but Sora added one more thing that made her sigh. "Besides," he threw the Keyblade to the side and then held out his hand again. The weapon reappeared in a flash of light in his palm, "It just comes back, no matter what you do to it."

"Hey guys," Nami started after watching the four of them take down another large group of Heartless. Luffy pulled out a Keyblade of his own that time to fight with and the navigator realized just how strong those weapons were. _I should have told them this earlier,_ "Alice, she..."

"Is no longer here," a voice finished for her and they all spun around to see a head floating over a log. The head belonged to a pink striped cat whose invisible body began to form under it, even though its head still bounced around in its paws. "Taken by the darkness."

"Whoa!" Luffy shot out a hand to grab the cat but it vanished with laughter and reappeared on a tree branch above their heads.

"Head to the upside down room and you'll find the shadow," the cat said once more before disappearing.

"But this forest is like a maze! How are we supposed to find our way there?" Sora shouted.

"Ahem," Nami cleared her throat from behind the others. They turned to her, "I may not be able to crush these monsters like you guys can, but if it's finding our way around a maze that's the issue, then we'll have it done in a few minutes."

**3 hours later.**

"Look we're here! It's the upside-down room," Nami called out and then started laughing with her hands on her hips. They were standing on a ceiling with the lighting and slanted roof giving it away. Plus, when they looked down they could see a chair, a table, and doors on the ceiling level.

"'Oh, don't worry, this next turn here will definitely be the right one,'" Donald wheezed after running around for the last three hours.

"'Oops, did I say right, I meant left. Go back,'" Sora chuckled with his hands on his knees, also feeling tired from all the running. Nami had veins popping in her forehead as the brats behind her kept up their taunting.

"It was a big forest!" she shouted back at them and they shut up with scared looks on their faces.

All of a sudden, two large black Heartless appeared in front of the orange haired woman. She screamed and fell to the ground as the fat monsters pulled back their fists.

"Nami!" Sora and Luffy both shouted and jumped in front of her, swinging their Keyblades and parrying the punches from the fat guys. "Fire!" Both boys shouted and shot two fireballs each from their Keyblades into the monsters in front of them. The beasts exploded and little yellow balls scattered, as well as one large one too.

"What is all this stuff anyway?" Nami asked as she watched the boys run around in the yellow balls and they got sucked into their pockets.

Luffy's eyes went wide but he wasn't fast enough to stop Sora from speaking, "It's money." The kid replied and Nami froze, snapping her head over to her captain.

"Ehhh?" she asked, wondering why he hadn't told her about their money situation from the second she joined them. That stuff had been dropping all day and he never decided to mention it to her.

Before a nasty fight could break out, the cat reappeared in the room on top of one of the light fixtures. "If you light up the room, the shadow will appear. You'll have to get back to the right-side-up room first though."

As the cat disappeared, Sora and Luffy each jumped up to the separate lights and held up their Keyblades. The power of their weapons lit up the lights and the room became a little more illuminated. Sora stared at the lights for a second, his dream coming back to him all of a sudden, _**The closer you get to the light, the larger your shadow becomes...**_

"Hey Sora," the kid snapped out of it and turned around to see the other four waiting near the door. Donald continued calling up to him, "We have to go back around to get to the other entrance to this room."

Nami sweatdropped, _that shouldn't change the gravity in there, but enough crazy stuff is happening in this weird... world? That I'm willing to accept pretty much anything by now._

It didn't take them very long at all to get back to the original entrance outside the garden of the Queen's court. The others all stared at Nami considering how fast they made it back, knowing that it should have been that easy to get there in the first place.

She just grumbled in annoyance and followed them as they walked back into the Bizarre Room. Now gravity seemed to be working again, and when they looked up, they could see the lamps were still lit.

"Look," Goofy pointed at the table in front of them. The cat was reappearing on the table again and that smile on his face got creepier each time, though Luffy seemed to love it and kept trying to grab the kitty.

"The shadow is close now. Are you ready?" the cat laughed a few times and then vanished.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Nami asked and took a step backwards. A loud thud broke the eerie silence in the room and everyone turned to Nami who was shaking in place, not daring to turn around. "I-It's behind me, isn't it?"

Donald, Goofy, and Sora all nodded as they stared at the red and black monster. It had two long black legs that extended over fifteen feet in the air before it reached the massive torso, which looked like ten different colored heads stacked on top of each other. The red and black heads alternated with each level it went up.

"Gum Gum," Luffy shouted and Nami finally started turning around to see the huge monster holding up two flaming weapons and ready to smash them down on her. "Spear!" The pirate jumped up and stabbed both of his feet out at the monster, knocking it backwards and forcing it to drop down to its knees for a second.

The other fighters got into attack mode and charged at the monster. Donald used Thunder on it while Goofy smashed it with his shield. Sora swiped back and forth with his Keyblade, and Luffy used a Gum Gum Gattling Gun on its damaged body. After a few seconds of this however, the beast's legs started to untwist, and it got back up to full height with an angry expression on all its faces.

The attacks intensified, with each one doing more damage to them. At one point it started swinging its batons and flinging fireballs that tracked them around the room until they finally hit something.

"It's too tall!" Sora shouted. He had been climbing up on top of the table and jumping towards the monster to do a combo attack on it, but the Heartless smashed the table to pieces and then broke the chair too. "Luffy!" he called out with an idea and started sprinting towards the monster.

The pirate captain who just thought of a new attack saw what Sora was going for and turned. He stretched out an arm to the kid and flung him up in the air towards the monster. At the same time, Luffy shot his other arm up and grabbed the tall beast by the shoulder and then grabbed the other shoulder once his right hand had released Sora.

The kid who was tossed up in the air started with an uppercut through the entire body of the monster, and then finished with three more strikes back and forth across before pushing through his fatigue to do one more move and slashed down hard on its head.

"Sora here," Goofy tossed up a potion he'd found while wandering the forest and gave it to the kid falling out of the sky. The green light enveloped him and he thanked the dog before landing and looking back up at the pirate who was spinning his body around over and over again while grabbing the shoulders of his enemy.

"Gum Gum," he shouted. Nami looked up at him confused, never seeing him use an attack like this before. His spinning finally stopped and he shot a foot straight up into the faces of the monster above him, "BOWGUN!" The Heartless lifted off the ground and soared through the air before thudding on the ground motionless.

It shuddered a few times and then a light shone from its chest. A blue heart lifted from the monster and carried up into the air before disappearing and the rest of it turned into darkness and sank into the ground.

"So I guess," Sora started, "Alice really isn't here after all."

"No," Nami sighed and shook her head, "the darkness took her just like Mr. Creepy Cat said."

"Hey, what's with all the ruckus?" they all turned their heads over to the doorknob that only now decided to wake up. "How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"

Nami blinked a few times while staring at the door in shock. "You know what? I don't even care anymore," she just turned around and sat down on the floor.

The other four however, leaned in real close as they saw something light up inside the doorknob's mouth. "It looks like, a keyhole," Sora said slowly. He felt his Keyblade getting pulled from his grip, and he watched it to point straight at the knob and release a beam of light at it.

"Whoa," Luffy said with starry eyes. They heard a clicking sound of something locking and then the light was gone.

"I don't know what that was, but I don't think we have anything else to do here," Sora said as he swung around his Keyblade and put it back at his side.

"At least we found one of your friends," Goofy said with an optimistic smile. He started whispering, "Though, she doesn't seem like a very nice person."

"What was that?" Nami growled, her face towering right behind the tall dog who started cowering where he stood.

"Nothing ma'am," Goofy said and ran behind Luffy who started cracking up.

"You guys are a riot," Luffy laughed, "when we find the rest of my friends, I definitely want you to join my crew."

Every one of the others stared at him in shock and the pirate captain just kept on laughing.

**A/N Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. I'd like some feedback on how I'm doing and ideas you have for later in the story. Right now I only have the next world written, which is the Coliseum, so I need some ideas for some cool stuff to do with Tarzan. Then we get back to Traverse Town part two for some crazy plot-tying stuff!**

OGAFazer89AC

Darkside Luffy would have been a really interesting boss to fight in game. It would have been even more interesting if it used some gum-gum power too, but what you put here was a good novelty nonetheless.  
I'm betting that Chopper will be the first Nakama they'll find. But more than that, I want to see Merlin try to teach some magic to Luffy and see his reaction the first time he'll try to summon Simba! I'm sure it'll be hilarious.

**Having the giant shadow monster stretch would have been a great idea. I'm thinking of bringing him back but next time with Sora'a shadow too, probably before a final battle with Ansem or anything. Nami was the first nakama, but there's another coming in the next world so we'll see who it is. Also, was Merlin in KH1? I don't remember unless that island that you had to jump across the stones to get to was opened by a trinity mark or something. He might show up in Traverse Town part two. And when he summons Simba, he's gonna ride that lion! XD**

zack25king

Now this was pretty cool to read, there aren't many good One Pieiece X Kingdom Hearts story IMO, but I have to say I really enjoy this one! I have to though, will there be any changes to Sora's journey now that Luffy and the crew are there with him?

**I'm still thinking about whether or not to pull in some other One Piece characters. There will definitely be changes to the journey, though I'll try to follow the world path by level of difficulty while I play the game at the same time. If I do bring someone in the worlds, it might be Smoker, but probably not Blackbeard. Main reason: they haven't met Blackbeard yet. So far Smoker has been their main villain, but I also want Destiny Islands to stay its own separate entity so who knows, maybe their Gummy Ship will land in Goa Kingdom, that would be fun! Thanks for reviewing and to everyone who read. 'Till next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Luffy you can't be serious," Nami pleaded with the captain as they walked back towards the gummy ship the duck told her about earlier. "We already have a reindeer on the crew, we don't need a crew full of weird talking animals!" She turned to the tall dog on her right, "No offense."

"Uh, sure," Goofy said with a shrug.

"We can't join your crew anyway," Donald started, "Goofy is the King's Captain. And I'm the Royal Magician! We're on an important mission for the king!"

"Luffy," Sora started and the pirates and Disney creatures turned to him. The spiky-haired boy's head was tilted down, "My islands were destroyed, thrown into darkness. Your world might be too," Nami stared at the kid with wide-eyes. "Even if you find your whole crew, what then?"

"Then we go back," Luffy said like it was no big deal.

The others all stared at him wondering if he was serious before Nami bonked him on the head, "Were you even listening?"

"Remember what Leon said?" Sora asked and finally Luffy stopped to look at the younger teen. "We hold the weapons to put a stop to the darkness. You can say you don't want that responsibility, but it's up to us to save your world, my world, and every world out there. Right?"

The pirate in the straw hat stared at the kid for a few seconds and then turned back around and continued to walk. The others just sighed and followed after him, "Is he always like this?" Sora asked the woman walking next to him.

"You have no idea," Nami responded while putting a hand on her head to help her headache subside. Donald explained to the others that they received the Blizzard magic after beating that last boss. She didn't think anything could possibly surprise her now, and then she saw the ship. "That's the 'Gummy Ship?'" She questioned as the boys walked over and popped the glass top.

"Yep, jump in!" Sora shouted, "It's my turn to fly now."

"Hold on," Donald shouted and they all stopped before hopping in. "All of your friends can't come with us to other worlds. You two are the exceptions because you're Keyblade wielders."

Luffy turned towards the duck and frowned at him, "Nami's coming with us, and so are the rest of my friends... when we find them."

"The ship's not big enough," Donald exclaimed, trying to find a way out of it.

"We could go back to Traverse Town and have Cid make some upgrades for us," Goofy suggested. "He could even make the cockpit big enough to fit a few more seats."

"That's a great idea Goofy," Nami said to the dog-man who smiled and blushed at the praise. Donald just grumbled in his seat and got in the cramped Gummy Ship, followed by the others.

* * *

"At least that was a smoother flight than the first time," Sora said as they landed on the next world's border. Nami was still stunned by the trip, even if it was the second time around.

They made a quick stop to Traverse Town, but wanted to get back on the road as quick as possible, so the navigator didn't even have time to meet the friends Luffy mentioned during the ship ride. She did meet Cid, who greeted her very politely and asked her to watch out for Sora while they were gone. The man fixed up their Gummy Ship and they headed off again, this time in a different direction as Wonderland.

Now they were on the side of some type of large gateway and as they hopped out of their ship, the gates started opening up for them. Nami's eyes started glowing as she stared at the giant golden statues holding up swords above another door across a courtyard from them.

"You guys see anything around here?" Sora asked as they looked around the empty courtyard. The others shrugged and they started walking as a group towards the door to the building in front of them.

When they pushed their way inside, the creature in front of them didn't even surprise them anymore. It was small, reddish pink, had a fluffy tail and horns, and covered in hair, not to mention fat. Sora was the first to walk over to it and it was looking at a board on the wall so it didn't even see the kid. "Umm," the boy started.

"Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya?" The guy facing the wall waved a hand in the other direction and they all looked over to see a stone block up against the wall. "Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games."

Sora shrugged and walked over to the block, pushing on it with both hands but it didn't move at all. Luffy walked over to help him, and together they managed to slide it from its spot to where the man pointed.

"Nice job Herc, now for your next job," the hairy thing turned around and stared at the motly crew in front of him. "You're not him." He looked over at the stone block that they were still able to move and he scratched his chin, "What're you doing here? This is the world famous Coliseum, heroes only!" He started marching his way towards Donald who stumbled back away from the pudgy goat man. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along pipsqueaks."

Luffy stared at the little guy with horns for a few more seconds and then took a seat on top of the stone block he just moved. Sora wasn't satisfied either and stared at the man, awaiting a different response. The guy sighed, "Look, it's like this. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum."

Nami groaned and didn't even want to look over at her captain who she knew was already practically drooling at the thought of fighting a bunch of monsters.

Donald Duck crossed his arms angrily, "You got heroes standing right in front of you."

"Yup. He's a real hero chosen by the Keyblade," Goofy said and put his hands on Sora's shoulders to reassure the kid.

"And we're heroes too," Donald added.

"Heroes? That runt!?" the man slapped his knee and started cracking up which pissed of the three of them even more than before.

"I'm not a hero," Luffy announced with a defiant look. "I don't want to be."

"What? Why wouldn't you want to be a hero?" Nami asked him in surprise.

"Don't get me wrong, I like heroes, I just don't want to be one." The others all looked at him still with confused looks. "Look, say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it. But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!"

The others all stared at him wondering what he was talking about, but the pirate got up and made for the door. "It doesn't matter if you leave on your own. You can't enter anyway. Two words, you guys ain't heroes." Phil crossed his arms and turned away from the group again. After each one of them shot the man one more dirty look for the ride, they followed the captain out the door and back into the courtyard.

"But Luffy, don't you wanna fight the monsters?" Sora teased, knowing he could get the pirate to stay if he offered enough bait. The man in the straw hat slowed down a little as they walked down the steps from the door, but the kid wasn't the reason why. He felt something coming up from behind them.

"Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?"

The group turned and Nami went a little pale in the face. _God, when is all of this going to stop surprising me? Okay, that's it. After this, nothing else will shock me today._

"Who are you?" Donald asked the man with the blue fire coming out of his head. The figure had blue skin and a large black robe around him. His nails were long and his teeth were almost as sharp as his words.

"Hold on there fuzz boy, let me guess. You want to enter the games, right?" the man was laughing the whole time as he walked over to their small group of misfits. Nami stayed close to her captain who was frowning at this guy, not liking him one bit. The man walked right up to Sora and put a hand on his shoulder, "Well then, hey, get a load of this."

"A pass?" Sora asked. He'd been cautious of this weird figure at first, but now he wasn't so sure.

"It's all yours. Good luck kid. I'm pulling for you, little shorty," he mumbled as he turned and walked away.

"Who was that?" Goofy asked after they were sure the man was gone.

"I don't know," Nami started with a shiver, "but I didn't like the look of him."

"Anyway," Sora interrupted the serious conversation and held up the pass. "Let's go to the games!"

"Yeah!" Luffy, Donald, and Goofy all shouted and jumped up in the air.

"Luffy," Nami started in an annoyed tone, "my Clima-Tact was still on Merry." The captain looked at her and frowned, scratching his chin. "I won't be much help, so I'm going to sit out of this tournament."

"Alright," he conceded and they all walked up the steps again and went back inside the room with the goat man inside.

"A pass?! How'd you get that?" the hairy man asked and the others just smiled at him innocently. "Well I guess I have to let you in. Are you ready? Some big weirdos signed up this time."

"Yeah, we're ready!" Luffy said and grabbed his bicep, ready for action.

The four of them went out to the arena and Nami stood on the outside with the annoying little goat man who seemed pretty interested in watching their matches. The first three rounds went by pretty fast, each of their competitors consisting only of Heartless.

"Man, these rounds are tiring me out," Sora said as he panted trying to catch his breath after the fourth match. The four fighters were resting on the side next to Phil and Nami when all their attentions were brought behind them towards another figure.

A man wearing a long maroon cape and metal shoulder pads turned his head slightly towards their group as he walked past. His hair was blonde and Luffy whispered, "It's even spikier than yours Sora," the two of them started laughing, but the man walking past ignored them and turned back around, continuing to walk out to the arena where he had a preliminary match next.

"Something tells me that's going to be some tough competition," Phil said and then added, "now head back over to the waiting area. Can't have you spying on your competitions' fights before your match comes around."

They agreed and started walking back in the room. It wasn't long before they had to go back out and finish off another batch of Heartless. This time it was a dozen of the blue ones with ice powers, all surrounding one of the big fat ones. "Woohoo, we did it!" Sora cheered after they finished and the four of them jumped up and down.

Nami cheered them on from the sidelines but Phil wasn't calling them back. "Your next match begins right now," he called out to them and they all turned to see the blonde haired guy from before walking slowly out to the arena. "This is semifinal bout number one. Cloud versus The Disney Straw Hat Highwinds. Begin!" _What's up with their stupid long name?_ Phil ran over to the side to avoid any collateral damage from the fight.

The kid named Cloud lifted up his hands and was holding a long sword covered in bandages like it had been wrapped for injuries. He was fast, and strong; he hit them with his sword in one long stroke than knocked them all back to the edges of the ring. Sora struggled to his feet and rose his Keyblade, "Fire!"

Cloud rose his sword to block the fireball, but at the same time, Goofy charged at him from behind and knocked him off balance with his shield. The four of them working together were able to fend off his attacks and help heal each other while their opponent had no way to do the same. At one point he tried healing himself, but Luffy punched him out of the way of the healing effects.

When the battle was finally over, the ones standing were the members of the really long-named team while Cloud was bent at the knee, panting hard. Phil and Nami started cheering from the sidelines as Sora and Luffy walked towards their opponent to shake his hand.

"It was a good fight," Luffy said as he walked over and the man with blonde spiky hair stood up. Cloud snapped his head around and the others saw it a second too late.

"How did that get there?!" Nami screamed. _No more surprises! No more surprises!_

A giant black dog towered above the entire arena. It slammed a foot down on top of Cloud and flattened him and his ridiculously long sword down to the ground. "RROOOARRR!" the middle of the three heads on the monster roared. Each of the heads had dozens of sharp canines and glowing red eyes. There was darkness seeping from their mouths and the fighters couldn't help but stumble backwards.

Luffy looked over and saw the blue guy with the fiery head walking away and frowned. _I knew that guy was no good._ "Come on Sora," Luffy shouted and the boy who was on the verge of running saw the rubber man hold out his hands and allowed the Keyblade to form in one, "let's beat this thing up."

"Sora watch out!" Nami shouted as she ran towards the arena. She didn't know what possessed her to do so, but she couldn't stand the sight of the three-headed dog diving down to take a bite out of the kid. "Whoa," she said, staring at the man in front of her with butterflies in her stomach.

The giant dog, Cerberus, was lifted back up before it could attack the brown haired kid in front of it. Everyone turned and saw a man standing underneath the monster with his arms held high to hold up the beast. The guy was wearing a bronze helmet with slits down the mouth area and a large indent near the midsection of the face. He had on a tunic and a white cape around his shoulder but wasn't wearing much other clothes besides that. He had a manly skirt that fell right below his waist and his muscular legs and arms were showing making Nami flutter a little at the sight.

She tried to focus and turned her head to where the teenager who was stepped on was lying, only to have her heart skip a beat again. Another man, as muscular, if not more than the tanner figure in the armor, was lifting up the giant paw on top of Cloud and tossed it to the side. He grabbed the boy and tossed him over his left shoulder.

"Herc!" Phil shouted as he saw the man pick up the unconscious teen. He turned over to the one holding up the three-headed dog. "Captain Lazerblades!"

Nami sweatdropped and stared over at the man in the armor who Phil was referring to. _Captain Lazerblades? Sounds like a name Usopp would come up with. _She tried not to laugh in the situation considering there was still a giant monster to deal with.

"I'll take the kid to safety Captain, you handle the dog!" Hercules shouted and ran off with the kid in tow.

The rubber man standing behind the guy in armor was staring at him in amazement. "Cool," he said and stared as the armored man pushed up hard and then jumped backwards as the dog fell.

In a masculine, low tone, the figure in the armor held up a hand and called out, "Fear not. Captain Lazerblades is here, and I will," the man turned his head a little so the slit of his visor was facing the people behind him. He froze mid-sentence and dropped the intentionally low voice he was using a second before to ask in a choked off voice, "L-Luffy?"

"Captain Lazerblades?" the pirate captain responded, still with stars in his eyes. He shook his head to get control of himself, "Wait, have we met before?"

The man in front of him was tan, had large bulking muscles on his arms and legs, and was wearing awesome armor. "I'd remember if I met someone like you."

"You haven't aged a day," the man continued, holding out a hand and touching the rubber man just to make sure if he was real. The others didn't understand what was going on, but they could all see the water start coming out of the visor in the man's helmet.

"Look out," Sora shouted and ran forward with the others. Luffy looked at the man one more time and then ran fast to start fighting the giant Cerberus with his friends.

"I didn't know Cerberus really existed," Luffy said with an excited childish voice. He dodged one of the snapping heads and punched one of the others with a fist clenching his black Keyblade. After the fist connected, he twisted his rubbery wrist and struck the far left face with his blade, dragging it across and pulling out darkness as he did.

Donald and Goofy did a combo move together and knocked out one of the four legs of the giant dog, bringing it to its knees. While it was down, it lifted up its heads and shot out dozens of black balls that started shooting around the sky and locking on to other fighters and heading for them. Each of the balls hit their targets despite the fighters dodging and rolling, or doing both, to try and move out of the way.

A high-pitched shriek made everyone turn their heads over to the stands where Nami was backed into a corner and five of the dark balls were headed straight towards her.

"Nami!" Luffy shouted and started running over, but he was never going to reach her in time.

The balls all hit and a cloud of darkness surrounded Nami in a large explosion. The four others running after her stared at the black shroud as it started to disperse, and their eyes grew large as they saw another silhouette in the smoke.

Nami lifted her head in fear. A moment before she thought she was dead, but now there was someone in front of her. He had smoke coming out of his body from where the dark balls slammed into him and as she tried to see him, she heard a loud clank and looked down to see a damaged helmet fell to the ground. _Captain Lazerblades,_ she started lifting her head back up to the man who just jumped in front of the explosions to save her.

"Proud Captain Lazerblades..." the man started before coughing on some smoke.

Nami's eyes went wide, her mouth dropping several inches. She didn't even think about how shocked she was at this moment, it didn't even matter to her. _I've heard those words before!_

"Shall never be defeated!"

Nami's mind went back to the Children's Island. There were Heartless everywhere. They didn't find Sanji, and were trying to get back to the shore and find Luffy as soon as possible. There were enemies on all sides, but he told them to go, that he would hold off the enemies so they could escape. As she looked back down at him, as darkness covered his body and he was taken away, he shouted one last thing. _"P-P-Proud Captain Usopp. Shall never be defeated. We'll meet again!"_

The woman finished looking up and Luffy stopped running towards them and just stood still in shock as well. "U-Usopp?" Nami stuttered out.

The man in front of her had large muscles on almost every portion of his body. His face was more defined, and he had facial hair growing on his chin. He looked back down at the orange haired woman and smiled softly at her, "You both look the same," he muttered quietly and then turned back towards the giant dog.

"Usopp!" Luffy shouted and now Sora turned around again from the giant monster that kept attacking them while they were distracted.

_That's Usopp? But the guy I met on the island was scrawny, he couldn't beat Tidus or Wakka in a straight up fist fight, now..._ the kid stared at the fighter who reached behind his back and pulled out a long double-edged broadsword to hold in both hands.

Captain Lazerblades, otherwise known as Usopp, glared at his enemy, "Hey Luffy, been a long time." He charged past the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates in a blur and jumped up in the air, smashing his sword into the center head of the Cerberus and slamming it straight into the ground.

**A/N Woohoo for awesome Usopp! Did I surprise some of you there? He's ripped and ready for action, but why? I'm sure it'll be explained in the much longer next chapter. Sorry for the short update but I felt that was a cool place to end the chapter so I just started the next one up there. I hope you all enjoyed it and thanks for reading. I still haven't really gotten any ideas for Tarzan, but I've got a few so I'll work off that. Next time we finish Hercules world and get back on the journey.**

Guest

You ruined by giving luffy a keyblade he already has own powers

**He'll still use his normal powers. But just like how Sora couldn't hit them with his wooden sword, it's hard to fight Heartless without a Keyblade. As the enemies get stronger his normal attacks will stop working at all... but he won't stop training his rubber powers, he'll have to improve them a Gear up if you catch my overly noticable hint.**

Guest

The money from the heartless is just a game mechanic they don't really drop money not any of the cut scenes

**There's also no health dropping in the cut scenes or fighting in the cutscenes really, but they still happen. The game mechanics work so that money still exists in the world and they can buy weapons, health, and other necessities with it.**

Matt

Chopper should appear in Lion King world and Robin in Nightmare Before Christmas world.

**Just wanna say that my name is Matt too so I'm loving the name bro. Also, I've got an idea for Chopper already, but that's a great idea for where to put Robin. I hadn't really thought about the Nightmare Before Christmas world a lot. If you remember, Chopper was hanging by a rope of the Merry... and I have a good world in mind for where she's gonna show up. I'm sure if you think about them you'll figure it out real quick. Anyway thanks to everyone who reviewed and I'll try to get up another update soon. See ya!**


	7. Chapter 7

Cerberus lifted up its head, its eyes glowing darker red than ever before as it snarled at the heroes in front of it. The monster lifted up his front two paws and slammed them back down on the ground. "Move!" The muscular man in the brown tunic shouted at the others before dodging to the right. He barely avoided a large black pillar of darkness that shot out of the ground into the sky.

"Usopp," Luffy whispered again, staring at the man with the long nose as he dodged dark explosions. The pirate captain had to dodge as well as a small dark pool formed below him indicating an attack was about to happen.

Nami still couldn't believe what she just saw. She stumbled up to her feet and stared ahead as the muscular fighter rolled out of the way of a paw coming down at him and then leapt over the jaw of a snapping dog's mouth. He landed on top of its body and started slashing down on its back with his strength behind him knocking its legs out from below him.

"Thunder!" Donald shouted.

"Fire!" Luffy called out and followed up Donald's attack.

"Blizzard!" Sora shouted and tested out the new magic ability he learned that shot out a cold blast that merged with the other two attacks and created a massive explosion that surrounded all of the dog's heads. It stumbled around for a few seconds and then collapsed to its knees, growling and trying to push itself back up but failing.

All three heads fell to the dirt below and sand clouds rose up around them. "We did it!" Everyone started cheering as the cloud cleared and they saw the form of the knocked out dog in front of them.

The fighter in the bronze tunic swiped his sword back and forth in the air and then put it over his right shoulder. He took a deep breath and then turned around, coming face to face with Luffy and Nami.

The two of them stared at Usopp from head to toe. He just stood there basking in their gazes and he flicked his nose, "pretty impressive huh?" He smirked as Nami's eyes shot up from his large biceps and looked in his face with shock. Usopp thought she would turn away, or get angry at him, but she didn't.

Nami took a step towards the sniper. She had a soft expression on her face and she held out a hand, touching him on the cheek. "What happened to you?" Her words made Usopp flinch, and he looked away.

He realized that they didn't just look like they hadn't aged a day, it really had been that long for them. From the second he saw them, he wanted to do this and now was his chance. "Nami, Luffy," he reached his arms out to either side of him and grabbed the two teens in front of him.

"Oof," Luffy felt his eyes getting squeezed out of his head he was being hugged so hard. "Good to see you too Usopp. Haha," he chuckled and asked, "what's up with your hair?"

The man blinked a few times and released them from his embrace. His curly black hair was behind his head falling down to his shoulders, but he thought the captain would've noticed the other differences first. It made him laugh, and he couldn't stop once he started. "Luffy," he calmed himself between laughs, "I missed you a lot."

"Usopp, tell me," Nami urged him. She had a bad feeling from the things the man had said to her so far. "What happened?"

"Yeah," Sora added from behind them. He wasn't included in the warm reunion, but he was still confused, "How'd you get so... big?"

The man sighed, "I guess I'll start from the beginning." He walked over and grabbed the helmet that was knocked off his head, putting it in the crook of his arm while he spoke. "After I was taken by the darkness, I appeared here, at the Coliseum. A few smooth talks later, and I'd convinced them I was a mighty hero. I spent the first month looking around and mainly just waiting for someone to show up."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Luffy stopped him and waved his hands in front of his face frantically. "What do you mean the first month? It's only been a couple of days."

"Is that really all it's been for you?" Usopp asked in a soft tone. Luffy's eyes went wide and Nami put her hand over her mouth, suspecting a similar situation, but hoping it wasn't true. "For me," he started and the others held their breath, "it's been three years."

Nobody spoke.

"Once I gave up on waiting, I needed something to do. So I told them this world sapped my strength and I needed a new trainer. Phil decided to help me out and I was here for a while before Herc came around. Man, if you think I was skinny, you shoulda seen what he was..."

"THREE YEARS!" Nami, Luffy, and Sora all shouted at him and made him stumble backwards in shock. They interrupted his story and Sora was the first one to continue though all their voices just spoke over each other.

"Did my friends spend that much time in one of these worlds? We have to go quick! They could be aging year by year as we speak!" The boy was frantic and Donald and Goofy tried to calm him down as the pirates yelled amongst themselves.

"You couldn't have been here for three years," Luffy stated and crossed his arms. He didn't want to believe it and neither did the navigator.

"But this doesn't make sense," Nami said firmly. Usopp turned to the angry navigator and she continued, "I was sent to a different world as Luffy but when he found me it had been the same amount of time for both of us. Why was it different for you?!"

"Hey don't get mad at me," Usopp told her and held up his hands in mock surrender. The orange haired woman lost her mad face in an instant and stared ahead at the man in front of her with water forming at the bottoms of her eyes. He noticed the change in her demeanor and said, "It's not your fault Nami."

"But we left you behind," she yelled back at him. Luffy was turned around with a surprised look seeing the woman with tears in her eyes. "We left you to those things and you got taken."

"I _told_ Chopper to take you and run. It's neither of your faults that you did what I said," he smiled at her, "and even after spending three years here, without my friends, I never regretted that decision."

Luffy's eyes slowly widened. He was only just now wrapping his mind around the idea of Usopp not lying this time. The man really was three years older than before.

"Captain Lazerblades!" The group turned and saw a panting Phil running towards them. Hercules was next to him looking like he wasn't winded at all. "Good, you managed to defeat Cerberus."

"Couldn't have done it without my old friends here," he said and the other two opened their eyes wide.

"You mean it kid? These runts are from your world?" Phil looked at each of them again. "Didn't think you had it in you," he was surprised they beat the guardian of the underworld.

"Does this mean..." Hercules started with a saddened face.

"Yes it does," Usopp said in a heroic voice and stood up tall. "It has been fun spending these last few years with you guys, but a hero's duties are never truly finished. Thanks again Phil for the training," he added at the end and smiled at the goat man.

"Yeah don't mention it," the pink hairy man replied with a shake of his hand, but he also looked sad to see Usopp go.

"So," Luffy began, "you're coming with us?" The sniper was surprised by the question but looking at his captain, he saw the teen's face also full of guilt.

"Of course Luffy," he assured with a wide smile.

The captain grinned back and pumped a fist in the air, "Yosh! Two down, four to go!"

Nami elbowed the insensitive captain in the side and motioned over to Sora with her head. They looked over and the kid was kicking a foot in the sand knocking up small dust clouds. She looked back to Usopp who she felt she had some major catching up to do with on the ship, and explained how Sora's friends were missing on other worlds just like theirs.

"Why'd she call you Usopp?" Hercules questioned his training partner for the past year.

"Anyway," the pirate dodged the question, "hey Phil when will the next games be?"

"Probably won't be any for a while." He stuck a thumb over his shoulder, "Gotta clean this mess up first, and without you here it'll take twice as long."

Herc understood what that meant for him and moaned. "Haha, I'll get right on it," his cheerful mood never disappeared and he already started running off to grab a pillar the dog knocked down. "When we get this place together, come back. We'll have a new tournament set up!"

"You got it," Usopp agreed.

"Yeah! I want to fight in a tournament here," Luffy said and turned to the kid behind him. "It's gonna be funnn," Sora lifted his head and looked at the pirate. A smile broke out on his face and he jumped up.

"Yeah we'll win it for sure!" The spiky haired fourteen year old chanted.

"I hope we find Zoro or Sanji by then, I know they'll definitely want to be in it." Luffy was talking to Sora as the Disney creatures introduced themselves to Usopp.

Nami was with Donald and Goofy as they talked to the sniper, but she saw his face distort when he heard Luffy say the others' names.

"Let's get back to the ship guys," Sora called out. "We can head straight to the next world from here!" _Riku, Kairi, I hope you guys haven't aged. If you did, we'll still be friends right?_ He shook his head and smiled, of course they'd still be friends.

"Hey Usopp," Nami started and the two of them slowed down to walk behind the others towards the courtyard. "Has anyone else besides us shown up here?"

"What? I don't know what you're..." the large man had gotten better at lying, but this was a subject that made sweat droplets appear on his face and he knew Nami noticed them. "Yes, one member of the crew got here before you did. Nami," he stopped and turned to face the woman completely.

She looked at him oddly and was starting to feel a little nervous, "I don't want you to tell Luffy. I'll let him know, but right now it would probably hurt him too much."

"What happened, are they alright?" Nami was afraid whoever showed up here wasn't here anymore because something bad happened to them.

"Yes, don't worry. He's perfectly fine." The sniper looked up at the sky and then back down at the woman. He took a deep breath and slowly lifted the tunic off his head. Nami would have admired the perfectly toned abs and pecs on him, if it weren't for the large scar going from his right shoulder down to his waist. "But he's not the same."

"Zoro?" Nami asked, looking into the man's eyes. His thoughts betrayed him and the woman knew immediately, "But why would he..."

"Nami, when he showed up, Hercules wasn't even here yet. Phil started training me and I was kicking butt for the first time in my life, it felt great. I got to the finals of a tournament, my first finals match." He paused as they heard the others calling them from up ahead and had to start walking to catch up with them. "At first I barely recognized him, but there aren't many people with that color hair." He chuckled at the thought and then became deadly serious, "He scared the shit out of me Nami."

"What do you mean?" she was already unnerved by the fact Zoro had hurt him, but the way it sounded, it was more than that.

"Back then I'd only been there for a few months, but when I saw Zoro, I knew it had already been years for him." Her eyes opened wide as saucers, "Much longer than I've spent here now. Five years, six, I don't know, but add three more on top of that," the man shook his head and grabbed a white sash from his waist and lifted it over his shoulder to cover the scar and clothe himself.

_Then how old is he now?_ Nami shuddered, imagining what it would be like to be lost in these distant worlds for years._ I probably wouldn't have made it, but Zoro's strong._

"He was big. Broad at the shoulders, muscular, dark," he stopped there and repeated, "He was very dark."

"Did he say anything?" Nami asked, already knowing she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Not at first," Usopp responded, "he ignored everything I was telling him about finding Luffy and getting back. Then he disappeared. When he reappeared he was right behind me and I had this giant slash down my body." Nami was stunned by the heartless action; the gladiator continued, "Then, as I was bleeding on the floor, he looked down on me and spoke. 'Don't wait around for him to come get you. I did, for years.' That bit stuck with me the most, but then he went on and rambled about opening your heart up to darkness and some crazy shit like that, it really freaked me out."

"But we did come," Nami said softly at the end of his speech.

"I knew you would," he smiled back at her. "I guess Zoro just went back to being a loner like when he was a pirate hunter." He saw her depressed look, "Hey, come on cheer up. Now that we've got a ship, we'll go to the other worlds and find the rest of the crew. Hopefully they'll be like you and Luffy and only have been there for a short time."

They made it to the front gates and stepped out to the edge of the world. The others were already getting into the ship and Usopp's eyes turned into sparkles as he saw it. "No way!" he ran past the woman to argue with the others about driving.

She sighed and followed after him. _Zoro, what happened to you?_ Her head lifted up and she looked out in the stars.

"No way Usopp, we already made the rotation and you weren't in it," Sora stated and crossed his arms. Donald agreed and grabbed the wheel for his turn.

"No fair," the man argued with the child, "I wasn't here for making the rotation so now we have to add me into it. Here I'll start now," he grabbed the wheel from Donald's hands just as Nami was stepping into the vehicle and the top closed. "Whoops," he said as he and Donald were wrestling for the controls and he accidentally pressed a button. "Wonder what that does?"

A mechanical woman's voice came out of the dashboard and spoke to them, "Thrusters engaged," the look on everyone's faces showed one word, 'uh-oh.'

"AHHHHH!" They screamed as the ship's rockets went full blast from their parked position and they skid across the ground before shooting straight off into the distance. The obstacles were coming at them faster than they could dodge and they were bouncing off of floating debris as the passengers were bouncing off each other.

It wouldn't have been as bad if Luffy didn't start cracking up in the middle of it since slamming into things in the ship didn't hurt him and it was a fun ride. Donald looked at some steam coming out of the gears up front, "She's not going to hold together for much longer!"

"Are we at the next world yet?!" Goofy shouted out before knocking heads with Usopp and both of them groaned.

"Not even close," the duck shouted back as he finally pulled himself into his seat and put on his seatbelt that they never had a chance to do before Usopp pressed the button. "I've got to make an emergency landing," the duck scouted out the area for somewhere to land. They had a set location they knew to go where they would find another world, but in the distance he saw a meteor that looked more oddly shaped than the rest. "I'm gonna set her down over there!"

"Quickly!" Nami urged. The ship spiraled out of control and as they hit the surface, the glass above them cracked. They all looked up and Luffy stopped laughing for a second as they realized something and their eyes went wide. "Ahh-" they were cut off as the glass broke and the water outside poured into the ship.

**A/N Alright we're headed to a new world that wasn't in the original game! I hope you all like what happened to Usopp and the first glimpse of a new enemy in the game... Zoro! Wonder what I'm going to do with him now, but I've got a flashback episode for Maleficent I'm thinking about. Also, the other characters probably won't have aged like Usopp and Zoro did, but no promises. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and please leave me some more telling me what you think of these developments and what world you think the characters just got to, it could literally be anywhere. **

Guest

No you really don't understand what a game mechanic is heartless get destroyed in cut scenes and drop NOTHING as far as money that could be from anywhere such as donlad and goffy's wages from working for the king and yes munny exist without the heartless have you not played KH2 roxas gets some from doing small jobs

**Chill with the money thing man, it's not even very important to the plot. There'll be some scenes where Nami gets mad about leaving behind money orbs when they have to run, but that's about it. I have played KH2 and gotten money that way, I understand game mechanics fine, I'm just having that game mechanic in the crossover just like the health. Calm your tits.**

Jmw

Love what your doing with this crossover.

**Thanks a lot! Hope you like this new development XD!**


	8. Chapter 8

"Glurg glurg glurg."

"Luffy you can stop making drowning sounds now," Sora said to the man standing next to him. When he looked at the pirate on his right however, he jumped back in shock.

The pirate in the straw hat slowly realized that he could breath. Not only that, but his clothes weren't getting wet. _Something feels weird,_ he lifted a hand and touched his neck, feeling a few slits on it and finding it hard to breath. "No way! I have gills!" he turned his head and pointed at Nami, opening his mouth to shout at her when the woman snapped to him with razor sharp teeth and evil eyes.

"Do not say a word," she growled at him. She didn't want to know what type of fish appendages she grew after taking one look at the others.

"What happened?" Usopp asked. They were standing on the edge of some city, and they were definitely underwater. He touched his own gills and then looked over his shoulder and saw a dorsal fin sticking out of his back.

"I used my magic," Donald said with a smug look. "Now we can breath underwater!"

"But seawater saps my strength," Luffy said and then moved around his arms easily.

Nami was testing the water too, "Odd, there's no water resistance," she tried jumping up in the air and she landed back on the ground just as fast as she normally would.

"Bikini Bottom," Goofy said and the others all turned to him, wondering what he was talking about. "Look, there's a sign," he pointed and was right, that was the name of the city they were entering.

"You guys think someone was sent to this world?" Usopp asked his friends. The others all looked at each other and shrugged. "Well, it's a big city, we should probably split up and look around."

"You do that," Donald said in an annoyed voice as he pushed away the muscular man. "Just stay away from the ship while I'm fixing it," the duck grumbled some incoherent words as he walked back towards the still-smoking rubble of their Gummy Ship.

"I'm in water," Luffy said in wonder and started looking around, "so this is what it's like at the bottom of the sea huh?"

Nami sweatdropped and Sora smiled at him, "Oh yeah, those Devil Fruits make it so you can't swim. This must be the first time you've gone in the water in a long time then."

"Nope," Usopp said with a frown on his face.

Nami also looked pissed, "This guy always seems to forget he can't swim until _after_ he falls in the ocean. It's a wonder he hasn't drown yet."

"I want to go," Luffy whined as he tried to run off and Usopp held him back with one arm.

"Wait," he said and then looked back at the other four around him. "I guess we can only split into two groups. Two should go with Luffy, since he'll just be running around the whole time, and then there'll be another group of two."

"I want to go with Luffy," Sora said, also wanting to explore the underwater city.

Nami sighed, "You go with them too," she told the sharpshooter, "I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do with Luffy." The man smiled and silently thanked her before running off with the other two down the street. The woman turned and the dog guy next to her met her face-to-face. "Uhh, so where should we look first Goofy?" She didn't really know the guy very well, but he seemed simple-minded and innocent from what she'd seen so far.

"Gawrsh why don't we try asking for directions?" he offered and the woman next to him smiled wide. _A man who's not afraid to ask for directions, I like this guy._

* * *

"Where are we going?" Sora asked Usopp as they ran down the street after Luffy. Boats with wheels on the bottom were driving down paved paths in between buildings and had to swerve out of the way every time they saw Luffy running down the middle of the road.

"Sorry," Usopp shouted over to a crashed boat on the side of the road with a fish waving a fist at him. "I don't know," the man called back to the kid as they both jumped up in the air and allowed another boat to go racing beneath them.

"Our bad!" Sora called to a different crashed boat on the left side of the street. "But he seems to know where he's going."

Luffy had his eyes closed and his face stuck up in the air. There was a magnificent scent wafting into his nostrils and he had to follow it no matter where it leads. "Meat," he growled in a low voice and the other two behind him started laughing before realizing their stomachs were running on empty too and needed some refreshment.

He charged down the street only following his nose and before long they could see what looked like a restaurant up ahead. "The Krusty Krab," Sora said as they ran past the large sign straight for the front doors.

Luffy slammed the doors wide open and the place was pretty packed, "MEAT!" he yelled and then ran right up to the register where the squid behind it was staring at the human with wide eyes, wondering what he was doing here. Another two humans walked in behind him, despite the fact that they had fins and gills, it was pretty obvious they weren't fish.

"Welcome to the Krusty Krab, may I take your order?" Squidward asked.

"Sure, can we..." Sora started and then felt something behind him and he formed his Keyblade in his hand. The people sitting in the restaurant panicked and got up to leave, running for the door as black holes opened up all over the floor and creatures started pouring out of them.

Little blue Heartless monsters with yellow eyes popped out of the ground and crawled around like crabs on the floor, but with extra large claws. "Mr. Squidward! What's with the sound of me losing money?!" Mr. Krabs ran outside his office to see all his patrons running out the door as monsters infested the place.

"Don't worry Mr. Krabs," the others heard a voice coming from the kitchen shout out, and a yellow square figure jumped through the divider window. He was holding a spatula in one hand and had on the same white hat that Squidward was wearing.

The sponge stood next to Luffy and Sora who each pulled out Keyblades and the man in the white sash next to them who pulled out a huge sword. "Hi! I'm Spongebob," the sponge greeted.

"Hello, I'm Luffy," the pirate introduced himself.

Usopp shouted at them, "Greet later, fight now!" The four of them ran forward and each took on a couple of the monsters each.

Sora swung his Keyblade into one, then followed up with another slash across it before dashing forwards and impaling it with his blade. It got knocked back, but one combo wasn't enough to kill it. _The one's in the last world were easier than this._ He had to use another combo and then jumped in the air and came down with his Keyblade to finish it off and scatter little green health orbs and money balls. Before he could celebrate, he was hit on the side by one of the other two Heartless that were following him.

The gladiator from the Coliseum was faring much better than the spiky-haired child. He slashed across the four of his enemies and they all knocked back before leaping up and trying to get him from the air. He swiped again and this time they all blew apart into darkness. He looked around and saw the sponge guy doing some crazy backflips and karate moves, but he wasn't really hurting the monsters much so he ran over to help him.

Luffy threw his Keyblade at the closest Heartless and it slammed into the creature, shattering it on contact. The pirate tried punching the next one, but he pulled his fist back and they had enough time to charge at him and attack, scratching his open chest before he shot his arms forward in a bazooka and knocked back two of the three Heartless. The third one dodged to the right and then jumped at Luffy before scratching the pirate on his side and knocking him into a table that broke under him.

"You have to pay to fix that!" Mr. Krabs shouted from the sidelines with Squidward. They were both watching as these odd humans with gills were taking on the blue creatures.

The man turned to his boss, "Who are these guys?"

"I don't know, but they're wrecking me restaurant!" The man was fuming as he watched Sora miss an attack and smash right through a chair. The man with the large sword who ran over to Spongebob took on his attackers but knocked them back into the window facing the street that shattered on contact.

Sora saw the last Heartless in the building and he and Luffy made eye contact as they both went for it at the same time. The pirate recalled his Keyblade and held the white hilt in his hand as Sora held his yellow one and they both pulled back. The creature couldn't decide who to go for as it snapped its head one direction, and then the other. It couldn't choose by the time the two were on it and they both brought down their weapons at the same time, blowing the monster apart and leaving holes in the wooden floor because of how hard they smashed down.

"We did it!" Sora jumped in the air and fist-pumped after they were done.

Luffy nodded his head and then turned back towards the kitchen, "Now time for meat!" Mr. Krabs' eyes turned to money signs and if these fighters just worked up an appetite, he was willing to feed them... at a reasonable price of course. The boss shouted for his fry-cook to get to work and the sponge who fought with them stopped talking about himself to Usopp for a minute to run back to the kitchen.

"Funny guy," Usopp said with a laugh as he sat down on an undamaged chair at a table. Sora and Luffy each sat next to him.

Squidward asked them how much they wanted, and Luffy responded, "Just keep feeding me!"

"I wonder if their cook will be able to keep up with your appetite Luffy," Usopp wondered out loud and Spongebob heard him from the kitchen, his ears perking up behind the stove.

"Can I keep up you say?" Spongebob asked through the divider and the squid ran out of the way. He dove for cover, knocking a table sideways and peeked his head over it as the cook held up a second spatula and the three patrons of their restaurant went wide-eyed. "No sweat."

Luffy started drooling as the sponge guy started cooking at a lightning pace and a burger that he called a Krabby Patty flew out of the window and right into his open mouth. He took a bite, and it was the best tasting burger he ever had.

* * *

"Come right up! Test your strength in arm-wrestling for a small fee of ten dollars!" Nami learned about the money in this world pretty quick, and she wanted to go shopping in the underwater mall, so she was trying something else.

A large red lobster walked up and looked at the man he had to beat in arm wrestling before laughing. He sat across from the dog and held out a claw that Goofy grabbed with his hand. Nami smirked and yelled for them to start, only for the Disney creature to slam the lobster's claw through the table.

Nami's eyes went wide, even she didn't expect it to go this well. The man grabbed his claw with his other hand and then gave away ten dollars to the crazy woman and her pet. "I'm pretty sure we're taking... uh... taking adv... uh," Goofy couldn't come up with the word and the orange haired woman felt a little bad about using him like this so she smiled.

"Don't worry, that's all we need really," they saw a crowd of screaming people running down the street and the woman sighed. "I guess we should go check up on the boys."

"You think they're in that direction?" Goofy asked and pointed down the street where the fish came running from.

She sighed at him and put an arm around his shoulder, "You have a lot to learn my friend," she started explaining to him as they walked the other direction as the fleeing patrons from the Krusty Krab.

* * *

"Aww come on please," Luffy whined. The pirate had a bloated stomach and actually broke the chair he was sitting on a while ago and now was arguing with Spongebob. At first they hit it off great, but then the pirate asked for the recipe so he could give it to their cook and he could make the patties on their ship.

"The Krabby Patty formula is a secret," Spongebob said with tight lips. "I'd never reveal it, even if my life was at stake."

"Ok then," Luffy said and went back to patting his stomach and talking about how great the food was. The sponge was surprised he just gave up like that, but Usopp knew, and Sora remembered back on his island when he said he was willing to risk his life for the adventure. Luffy was very understanding when it came to that.

"Now," Mr. Krabs walked out and was rubbing his claws together with a wide smirk on his face. Before he could start taking all their money, the roof of the Krusty Krab was ripped off and pieces of wooden ceiling fell all over the place.

The glass windows were already broken along with some of the furniture, but with this, Mr. Krabs could see the dollar signs on the property damage and started to cry. Squidward threw his hat on the ground and ran away screaming as he saw the giant robot standing in front of the building. "Hey there Krabs," an annoying voice stated and the giant metal robot's one eye opened up and they could see a small figure that looked a lot like the robot, except green, standing there.

Usopp and Luffy were staring at the robot with starry eyes and shouting how cool it was, missing the direness of the situation completely. "Plankton!" Spongebob shouted and grabbed his trusty spatula.

"Seeing as the Krusty Krab was already partially destroyed, I figured it was a perfect time to test out a new invention." The little man laughed and the pirates started to realize that this was a bad guy.

"Damn you Plankton, you'll be paying for this you hear me!?" Krabs shouted up at him.

"With what money? All my life, my customers have been flocking to your door instead of mine! But with the Krabby Patty formula, I'll be..." Luffy's fist slammed into the front of the robot and knocked it backwards as it stumbled away. His eyes were hard and determined and Usopp stood up with his captain now.

"Don't touch the formula, it's his treasure," he pointed back at Spongebob who was surprised by the action but nodded and held up his spatula in defiance.

"So you wish to be destroyed? SO BE IT!" The giant eye contraption closed and even in his anger, Luffy couldn't help but mutter 'cooool' and then go on the attack again. Sora ran outside with Usopp and the two of them slashed at the skinny legs of the giant metal beast.

Plankton's robot's hands opened up and rockets flew out, exploding all over the front of the restaurant and blowing away the remains of the front of the building. Krabs was now backed up against the register, holding it with all his love and protecting his money. The metal monster lifted a foot and tried stepping on Sora, but the child rolled out of the way before flipping back to his feet and slashing it at the knees.

Spongebob was climbing up its front and he shoved his spatula into a crack of one of the metal plates, prying it off the form. He reached inside and started slicing up wires with his spatula.

"Huh? What's going on here?" Plankton shouted inside the cockpit. He looked out the clear eye of his monster replica and he saw Spongebob messing around inside him. "Karen, status report!"

A woman's voice sounded over the internal computer, "It's not looking good," her voice started to get low and droned out, "it's not looking, good, at all." She shut down and the robot toppled backwards as the gears all started smoking.

"No no no! I was so close this time!" Plankton slammed on the console and it only started smoking more.

Outside the robot, the others were all cheering and celebrating together. Nami and Goofy were walking down the street and saw the robot lying on the floor and their friends dancing around next to it. The woman sighed and was about to call out to them when a dark circle appeared behind the head of the monster. The others didn't see it because they were standing at its feet, but a man in a black cloak came out of the hole and stared at the monster in front of him.

Plankton groaned as the glass eye in front of him was ripped open and he stared above him at the figure in the black cloak. "What do you want? Come here to gloat... wait who are you?"

"If you wish to defeat them, then open your heart to the darkness," he stared down and the little man started nodding furiously and shouting that he wanted the power. The man didn't say another word, but he held out a hand and from the distance, Nami could see the man's hand cover in darkness. The darkness on his hand floated down and straight into the little creature in front of him, and then the cloaked man turned around.

As the cloaked figure turned, he saw Nami and Goofy staring at him from down the street a little, but his eyes stopped on Nami. The young woman with short orange hair stared at the man for a few seconds, before he turned away from her and sank back down into another circle of darkness on the floor. _Zoro?_ She wondered and then had to snap her head away as the giant robot's right arm moved.

Luffy and Spongebob were dancing around together when Sora shouted for them to turn around. "Hahahahaha," Plankton's voice laughed but they all realized something was wrong with him. "So this is _true_ power?" His voice was low and darkness started spewing from the open cockpit of the robot as it pulled itself back on its feet.

The metal giant stomped on the ground and pushed itself to full height for the others to see. The small man inside the cockpit was standing at the edge as visible darkness leaked out of all sides of the large circle where the glass was before. Plankton was laughing like crazy and his eye was yellow, followed by the entire open circle of the metal robot to glow yellow as darkness spewed out from the cracks on the sides and came out of its feet below.

"Plankton! What are you doing?" Krabs shouted up at his old friend. The tiny man had tried some crazy things before, but he looked seriously deranged a second ago.

"Plankton!" Spongebob shouted up, but the little being wasn't listening.

The robot's darkened foot lifted up faster than before and kicked forward, hitting the unsuspecting Usopp and sending him flying backwards through the wall of the main restaurant and into the kitchen where he knocked over the still burning stove. Spongebob yelled in anger and charged at the beast, now pulling out his second spatula to help.

As the sponge climbed, Sora pulled out his Keyblade and jumped in the air, slashing at the left fist of the robot that clenched and punched him out of the air before he could finish his combo. "Gum Gum Gattling Gun!" Luffy shouted and sent a rapid fire flurry of fists at his opponent. Every one of his attacks either bounced off without any damage, or barely hurt it at all before it looked down at him and the yellow in its eye burned brighter.

Luffy's eyes turned to stars even as he dodged and ran back into the Krusty Krab to avoid the huge explosion. Usopp lifted his head from the rubble in the kitchen and stared out with just as much happy shock. "L-Lazer Beam!" He and Luffy started practically drooling over the robot even as they ran back to fight it.

It looked like nothing could stop it, when Goofy jumped up from behind and slammed it with his shield. The monster stumbled forward and fell to a knee and Nami shouted, "It's weak from the back, hit it there!"

"Nami? When'd you get here?" Luffy asked with a tilt of his head.

"Who cares?!" she shouted back at him but the robot was already getting back up and they lost their chance to get a lot of hits on it.

The world travelers and their yellow friend spent the better part of thirty minutes fighting the metal robot until it was smoking and catching fire, but it still wouldn't go down. "There's no way something Plankton built could withstand all those attacks!" Mr. Krabs yelled, wondering how the tiny man had done this.

"It's a Heartless," Sora shouted as his Keyblade was doing a lot more damage this time than it was fighting the robot at first. Before Krabs could ask what that was, Goofy and Luffy each attacked a leg at the same time and they broke in half, causing the monster to fall flat on its stomach and face. It pushed its arms down to lifted up and pointed its eye back at the fighters who knew by now to dodge and leapt out of the way as one final beam shot at them and hit the pole holding up the Krusty Krab sign.

Luffy was covered in burns and scratches and he started using a gattling gun, yet none of his attacks hit the monster he was fighting. This was intentional. He kept swinging his arms until finally he stopped by throwing two fists out, "Gum Gum Cannon!" he shouted and both fists slammed into the side of the robot and knocked him over so the beast was lying on its back.

The yellow glow faded and the darkness started spewing out of the monster even more as Plankton pulled himself up. "No, I was supposed to win this time. Victory, should have..." he fell back on the metal plate and clutched his chest. The others took a step forward, but a blue light flashed out of his tiny chest and they watched as a full size heart with the curve at the top lifted out of him and up in the air before disappearing. As it vanished, the robot and Plankton alike started drifting down into a dark circle that appeared below them.

"Plankton!" Spongebob shouted and reached forward, but the little guy sank down into darkness and faded away.

It stayed silent there for a few seconds as they stared at the spot where Plankton no longer was. Suddenly the owner of the Krusty Krab spun around and ran for the part of his restaurant that didn't take much damage. The door to his office was ripped open, but Sora followed him inside with a few others as he ran straight to a safe in the back. "You're safe baby, he won't come to get you anymore." The man rubbed a claw on the metal safe and Nami started rubbing her hands together.

Sora saw a small light emit from the safe and Goofy and Luffy saw it as well. They watched as the kid lifted up his Keyblade and a bright thin light emitted from the end of the silver part and shot into the safe. "Looks like our work here is finished," Sora said with an aura of accomplishment around him.

"Yeah, we beat the Heartless boss and found the Keyhole," Goofy exclaimed as Mr. Krabs yelled at them for doing something to his safe.

"Donald is probably done fixing the ship, let's go," Sora suggested and the others agreed and followed him out the restaurant after saying goodbye to their new yellow friend.

"Wait a second, who's going to pay for all this?" Krabs yelled after the weird people. Nami turned around and tossed a ten dollar bill in the air. "That's not nearly enough!" The crab man yelled at her, but then he sprinted out and caught the money as it was floating down and held it close to his chest.

"Hey Usopp," Nami slowed down the strong man as they were all walking back. Luffy, Sora, and Goofy were all talking about the fight and how awesome it was, but she had other things on her mind. "I saw someone..." she started in a hesitant tone and Usopp looked at her funny, "in a black cloak. He appeared and did something to that guy that made him fill with darkness. When he looked my direction," she paused and took a deep breath, "it felt like he knew me."

"You think it was Zoro?" Usopp asked. The woman didn't say anything back to him, but that was all she needed to do. "Hmm," the sniper said and then cheered up and tried to do the same for the woman, "I have something for you." She cocked her head to the side wondering what he was talking about. "I figured you would need a weapon when I found you again, since yours was on the ship and all."

The man pulled out the three blue parts of Nami's clima-tact except they had big blue balls in the connecting pieces. Her eyes went wide and he handed it to her, "I made a lot of additions to it and it's not just a party favor anymore. Now it's a full blown weapon," he smiled and kept walking to catch up with the others, "it has a lot of new functions like..." he stopped as he was almost tackled by the hug Nami slammed him with.

Her eyes were watering and Usopp didn't know what he did meant so much to her but he accepted the hug anyway. She couldn't believe it. _He spent three years away from us, but he still made me this. You could have forgotten all about us, but you didn't you big oaf. Not like some people... Zoro, why did you change so much?_ The man she was hugging had no idea what internal conflict she was having right now, but she was hugging him longer than just a friend would and he was starting to go red in the face. He cleared his throat and finally Nami let go and wiped her eyes.

"Come on guys, get in already!" Sora called out to the two pirates outside of the Gummy Ship. Donald was taking a nap inside since it didn't take very long for him to fix the ship.

The others were all feeling pretty tired too and when they got in, Usopp offered to drive and this time no one fought over the controls. The group lay down in the extra space in the cockpit courtesy of Cid, and they all went to bed.

* * *

"Hey, what are you doing?" Donald yelled at Sora who was messing around with some controls as Usopp headed down towards the world below.

"I'm just playing around, don't worry about it," he said back and kept pressing buttons.

"Stop that," Donald yelled and ran forwards, knocking into Usopp whose elbow slammed into the buttons up front that Donald just fixed. The duck turned to him and started yelling but Luffy backed up his crewmate and said that he was the one who caused it.

"Guys stop arguing!" Nami yelled at them, but now Sora and Luffy were arguing because the kid didn't want Luffy's help defending himself from the court magician, though Luffy said he was helping Usopp not him. The ship started spiraling out of control as everyone was yelling and Goofy flipped around the cockpit still in his sleep when he hit the latch that opens the glass.

Everyone stopped yelling for a second and Donald grabbed his friend so he wouldn't fly away. Luffy and Sora weren't buckled in though either, and as the glass lifted off, the two of them went flying out and down into the jungle below. They were shouting the whole time in panic, but a building appeared on top of a tree branch below them and the two boys crashed straight through the roof.

"Ughh," Sora groaned and pulled his head from the wood floor that he hit.

"You okay Sora?" Luffy asked as the rubber man pried his head from a wall.

"Oww, my head," the kid rubbed the back of his spiky hair and then looked over at Luffy. He looked up in the air and around the room, "Donald? Goofy?"

"They're probably still back on the ship," the pirate said as he got to his feet. He felt something behind him, and Sora felt it at the same time, spinning his head around. "Look out," Luffy warned the younger boy who gasped as a tiger speckled in black dots leapt down from the second floor of the wooden house they crashed into. It roared at him and stopped as Sora pulled out his Keyblade; the beast was smart and swiped with its claw into Sora's side and knocked him back into the wall.

Luffy ran forward to punch the cat away, but this wasn't like any animal he fought back on his home island. This one turned to him with such murderous intent that he was surprised it was actually an animal and not one of those Heartless monsters. It snapped its head towards Luffy and opened its mouth as the pirate punched forward. In his mind, Luffy watched as his fist flew towards the tiger and then it bit down on his arm and ripped his hand off. The pirate slammed his fist into the floor before he could finish his attack, "That was close, he would have bit me."

The tiger was angry that its trap was avoided, but it still pounced towards its prey and clawed down Luffy's chest who couldn't dodge backwards fast enough. _It's too fast,_ he thought and tried leaping away as Sora ran forward with his Keyblade, slicing at the beast and making it back off a little. It circled before pouncing again and knocking the child back.

It started walking towards the hurt fourteen year old and it bared its white teeth. Suddenly someone jumped through a hole in the wooden wall and sprinted across the high beams above them in the room. Just as the jungle cat was about to pounce on his prey, the man wearing nothing but a cloth around his waist dropped down and held out his spear, snagging the wooden staff between the top and bottom jaw of the tiger's mouth.

The man pushed the beast back and then pointed the sharp end of the spear towards it, daring it to make another attack. The tiger sprinted towards the wall and jumped, smashing straight through the window and disappearing into the jungle.

Sora picked himself back up to his feet and Luffy walked over, putting a hand on his chest wounds and wondering if they would stop bleeding soon. The younger boy saw Luffy lift up a hand covered in blood and tossed him his last potion. It did its trick though, and the pirate felt his wounds go away instantly.

"Sabor, danger," the man warned. He looked at the two young men in front of him and had a blank expression on his face.

It didn't look like he spoke much English, so Luffy slouched down like he did and put his hands on the floor like a gorilla. "Me, Luffy."

Sora looked at the pirate funny and then back at the jungle man, "Um... thank you."

"Thank you," the guy responded, obviously not understanding. He looked back at Luffy, "Me, Tarzan."

"Well Tarzan, uh what is this place?" Sora asked.

"This place, this place," Tarzan couldn't understand the long sentences the young boy was using so Luffy held up a hand for Sora to stop.

The pirate grinned and went, "Oo oo, ah ah," Tarzan nodded at him in understanding and repeated a couple more monkey sounds. "Ee oo, oo ah ah," Luffy said and Tarzan chuckled. Sora sweatdropped and stared at the two of the in stunned silence for a few seconds.

"Hey Luffy," Sora said and the pirate turned to him with a blank monkey look, getting way too into the whole jungle man thing. "Ask if he knows where the others are?" Sora looked at the ape man, "Friends, do you know where my friends are? There's a bunch of them, there's a loud one named Don..." he stopped and Luffy and Tarzan both looked at him wondering what was wrong, "You know what? Never mind. I'm looking for my friends, Riku and Kairi."

"Look for Riku, friends?" Tarzan asked while Luffy got back up to standing straight up and stared harshly at the kid who tried ignoring him.

"Right," he said and then something caught his eye in the light on the other side of the room. He looked over there and Luffy followed his gaze to an area of the room where he could swear he saw a little girl with red hair. Tarzan said something to Sora, but he and Luffy were both staring at the image of Kairi as she walked across the room. Luffy felt like the girl wasn't really there, but he knew that whatever was making them see her probably wasn't a friend.

"Friends here," Tarzan told him and the others looked at him.

"Really?" Sora asked.

"Ee oo, oo oo ah," he muttered and the brown haired kid turned to Luffy who just shrugged this time. They listened as the man repeated himself, "Ee oo, oo oo ah! Friends here."

They were about to ask where, when they heard voices outside the building. "Danger," Tarzan said in a panic. After the man scared away that jungle cat, they were afraid of anything that could spook him. "Men, danger." He jumped up to a ceiling beam and then ran through the hole in the wall to disappear in the jungle.

The voices were closer now and Luffy and Sora backed away from the door right as it was thrown open and people started walking in. They were all wearing white and blue uniforms though the sleeves were ripped off and they had scratches all over them like they'd been in the jungle for days.

Luffy's eyes went wide, but the men's went wider at the sight of the person in front of him. "Monkey D. Luffy stop right there!"

"Who are these guys?" Sora asked and turned to Luffy, wondering why all these men in uniforms were after him.

"Kid get away from that pirate, he's a man with a hundred million bounty!" Sora was stunned and looked up at Luffy who's face was darkened by his hat and then the rubber man snapped his head up with a smile that went from ear to ear.

"A hundred million?! When did it go up?" he shouted in glee.

"He's in there Smoker-san!" Luffy's smiled disappeared and he started to shake, which made Sora fearful of whoever was about to walk in the room.

"MUGIWARA!" a voice boomed and a man with white hair smoking three cigars stepped into the room and glared at the pirate in the straw hat across the room from him.

Luffy smashed a hole in the wall next to him and Sora and then made eye contact with the kid, "RUN!" he shouted and sprinted towards the hole before jumping out into the forest below. He fell right off the tree and flew down through the air.

"He's nuts!" a marine shouted, "Does he know how high up we are?" The man saw the kid looking at the hole in the wall and then back at them.

"Hey brat, I don't know what you're thinking..." Smoker started and took a step forward. That was the wrong move and the kid turned to the hole and leapt out of the wooden building, falling down into the trees below. The marine captain sighed and his men were all staring at him with disappointed looks. "What?!" he yelled at them angrily.

They cowered and one brave marine spoke up, "It's because you're so scary that little children would rather dive hundreds of feet after pirates than stay with the marines. Why don't you try smiling next time?" The thought of a smile on Smoker's face made the man shut up instantly and the captain growled.

"Mugiwara is here," the man stated and turned around to walk for the exit, "we will capture him."

**A/N Bikini Bottom, black cloak guy, Tarzan, and the marines! This chapter had a lot. Tell me what you think of Spongebob's story line and who you'd like to see appear in the upcoming worlds. Next time we'll get a Smoker flashback and the Deep Jungle. Hope they can all find their friends okay. Hope you enjoyed!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Flashback**

"We've received word that the Straw Hats are straying off course from their next destination," Captain Smoker reported into the Den Den Mushi on his desk. His superiors had given up on trying to get him back to HQ for a promotion and just allowed him to chase after Mugiwara Luffy.

"Are you on their trail?" a man's voice came back over the line.

Smoker puffed out some smoke from his cigar and looked out the window. _Straw Hat, I will find you._ "Yes sir, we..." he stopped mid-sentence as the sight out the window made him freeze.

Over the line the marine officer holding the snail in front of a few of his superiors asked, "What is it? What's wrong Smoker?"

"Yo, Smoker," the gray haired man heard his teacher, Aokigi's voice come over the line. "You still there?"

The captain picked up the snail phone and walked over to the door to his cabin, throwing it open just as a Corporal was about to knock. The man looked up at the captain with panicking eyes and shouted, "There's a storm up ahead. It's like nothing I've ever seen before!"

Hearing those words from a navigator on the Grand Line was enough to perk the interests of the big shots on the other side of the line. Smoker was staring ahead at the giant black cloud in the night sky, it looked menacing and, evil. The darkness wasn't just from the color of the cloud, it was the sensation he felt in his bones. Purple and black colors swirled in the sky and lightning bolts shot all around.

"Smoker-san!" Tashigi shouted and ran over to her leader. The black haired woman with the sword at her side looked scared, but more composed than the majority of the men who were running around in a panic.

"Captain Smoker, what's going on over there?" the marine he was giving the report to earlier shouted.

"Tashigi," Smoker said to the woman, "that's the direction Mugiwara was last seen going was it not?" She gulped and then nodded at him with a set face. The Corporal in front of the Captain went wide eyed, but he wasn't gong to go against his superior's orders. "I'm heading in there," Smoker said into the Den Den Mushi.

He looked up in the sky and the dark clouds moved to the side as a huge black ball formed with a purple outline and a burning red core. Kuzan's voice came over the snail phone, "What are you doing Smoker? If your men are at risk, pull back," it wasn't often that the Admiral told him to do something, he usually just trusted Smoker's instincts. However, the weird feeling he had all the way in Marineford made him on edge.

"I'm capturing Mugiwara no matter..." Smoker stopped the rant he was about to go on and the cigars fell out of his mouth. "Holy..." the Captain dropped the snail phone as the men on his ship stopped just running around and started screaming in horror.

Far in front of them, a giant black monster was ripped into the black hole in the middle of the sky. The marines had no idea what it was, but what they did know was that the water was coming to an end. "Turn back!" Tashigi shouted at her men while they all ran to the ropes and tried everything to get the ship to turn around.

"It's not that we're heading towards it!" a marine looking over the side of the ship yelled with tears in his eyes. He spun his head back and looked on the verge of insanity, "The water is falling!"

Smoker used his powers to fly up to the bow of his ship and stared down in disbelief as the ocean itself collapsed down into an endless black hole filled with stars and huge chunks of land. Their boat dropped off the ledge as the water beneath them fell, and they dropped through open space.

"Smoker! Smoker answer!" the Den Den Mushi suddenly cut off and there was no more transmission coming from it as all the marines stayed absolutely silent. The shock of falling through this black void was too much for them, and then slowly the ship stopped moving.

Everyone looked around for a few seconds, and then the ship started lifting back into the air. They all looked up and their faces turned blue as the giant black hole was spewing more lightning than before and crackling with darkness that all came from the red core in the middle of the black ball. The screaming started back up and marines held on to each other as they felt their lives were at an end.

"Smoker-San!" Tashigi shouted and reached a hand out towards the Captain. Smoker was snapped out of his awe and turned his head just in time to see the woman get thrown off the side of the ship where she was taken by a force of gravity and torn up into the darkness.

"Tashigi!" he yelled. "Grab onto something!" he ordered the rest of his men who tried grabbing on to ropes and planks for dear life. The Captain didn't see anyone else disappear, but really that was the last thing he remembered before waking up.

His warship was pointed straight up and he was lying back against the wall of the cabin. There were other marines around him rubbing their heads and getting back to their feet, but all he heard was the constant chirping of some jungle bird. _Jungle..._ he lifted up to his knees and looked around in a daze. All he could see for miles around him was the deep thicket of a rainforest.

"Status report," he growled out and the marines around him tried to regain their obedience and lined up in a semi-organized fashion. "Tashigi, what are our losses? Tashigi!" he shouted out.

The navigator Corporal named Steven stepped forward, "She's not here Captain."

The white haired man growled and looked around in the forest around him. "TASHIGI!"

**End Flashback**

* * *

"Gawrsh, where are we hyuck?" Goofy sat up on the rock he and Donald were sitting on. There wasn't anyone around them as far as they could see and the jungle grass was too thick for them too see through it.

The duck next to him in all blue was lying angrilly on the rock with his eyes closed. He was pissed that they were ejected from the ship prematurely all because of... "I sure hope Sora's okay," Goofy continued. The pirates were strong and could watch out for each other, but the young kid he was most worried about.

"Aw who needs him?" the duck exclaimed and sat up angrily. "We can find the king without him. Huh?" Donald saw something near his feet and looked off the rock coming face to face with a kid gorilla. "WAWAWAWA!" he yelled and the gorilla screamed back at him before charging off into the jungle.

"Who..." Donald started as he saw someone coming through the jungle. That person was flanked on both sides by a large group of men wearing white uniforms and hats on their heads. They all looked pretty official but like they'd been camping for a while and their clothes were pretty dirty and torn. The man leading them had a yellow button down shirt and was more muscular than the average man.

Goofy stared at the man's mustache, and then his eyes were drawn to the double barrel shotgun in the hunter's hands. **Gulp. **The lump in his throat lifted up and went down as the man looked at them.

* * *

"Whahooo!" Sora shouted as he slid down the slippery tree trunk. When he fell from the treetop house, he was pretty scared that he was going to fall all the way down the forest, but he saw Luffy sliding around on a tree branch and tried landing on one himself. After than he started skidding all around the forest while having to duck and jump to dodge the occasional obstacle.

He didn't see Tarzan anymore, but Luffy still had the jungle man in his sights and tried following him down the tree branch as they slid. "Come on Sora, we've gotta get away!" _Smoker is here?! How?_ Luffy didn't like thinking about it, but he didn't plan on meeting up with the marines on his travels to different worlds.

"Who were those guys?" Sora called to Luffy as he started to catch up and got Tarzan in his sights as well. "Why were they chasing you?"

"Oh yeah, no one ever showed up at your island before," Luffy remembered the kid said back on Destiny Islands, and he explained how marines chase pirates and pirates have to avoid them or risk getting caught and sent to jail, or worse.

"Executed? Why? You haven't done anything wrong," Sora complained.

"It's just how it is," Luffy said, never really thinking about it before. "Most pirates are bad guys," images of Arlong and Crocodile shot through Luffy's mind and he growled as he ducked beneath a low tree branch, still sliding down the wide one he was on. Then Coby went into his mind and he smiled, "So marines try to capture them. But they won't catch me," he said with certainty.

Sora nodded and then watched with wide-eyes as Tarzan leapt up in the air and dropped down out of the canopy. The long tree branch they were sliding on was about to end and Luffy jumped after Tarzan. "Not much I can do," the kid grumbled before sliding off the end of the tree branch and falling down too.

Luckily there were a lot of large leaves that slowed their fall until a ten foot drop to the ground which was nothing to the skilled fighters. Unfortunately, when they hit the ground they were ambushed by Heartless appearing all over the place. The two of them fought while Tarzan attacked one of them with his spear. He was pretty good with it and beat up the monkey Heartless with yellow eyes until it exploded.

The pirate and his younger friend were able to defeat the rest of the monkey Heartless and even the red monkey who was much stronger than the others. They all had the dark area around their eyes and attacked with the power of darkness behind them. "Come on," Sora said as Tarzan started running off through a clearing.

"Are you sure we should be following him?" Luffy wondered. "I mean, he could lead us to the marines," the rubber man wasn't looking to get in a fight with Smoker right now when his friends were missing all over the worlds.

"What's the worst that could happen? See," Sora pointed as they ran into a campsite. It didn't look like there were any marines here, and the whole place looked deserted except for the Heartless that appeared. They came out of the ground right after Tarzan ran into a tent and now they were blocking that entrance to the Keybearers. "No one here but them, I got this," he said and held up a hand.

Luffy watched with a grin as Sora ran forward and punched and kicked away all the Heartless around him. One sped forward and slashed at the kid, but he held up his Keyblade and parried the attack, knocking the monster back. The pirate frowned, _he's getting faster, a lot faster, but so are the Heartless. Hmm,_ he looked down at his hand, trying to think and he knew he was getting somewhere, but then his thoughts were interrupted.

"All done!" Sora called back to Luffy. He wiped his hands across each other and then stepped into the tent with the pirate right behind him.

A beautiful young woman with brown hair stepped away from a map and smiled at them. "Oh hello there, my name's Jane."

"Hi, uh, I'm Sora and this is Luffy," the spiky haired boy introduced himself.

"Oh you speak English!" Jane exclaimed, "Then you can't be friends of Tarzan. Who are you?" She still had that wonderful smile on her face that reminded Luffy of Makino and Sora of his mother. "Are you here to study the gorillas?"

"Well," Sora didn't really know how to explain himself, but Luffy did.

"I'm a pirate!" he said with a proud pat on his chest.

"Oh my," Jane stumbled backwards and grabbed the side of her dress, ready to run if she needed to.

Sora waved his hands out in front of him, "He's not a bad pirate though. Luffy's a good guy," he said and the woman sighed.

"That's a relief," she said and wiped some sweat off her brow. "For a minute there I thought you were here to steal our research on the gorillas." She chuckled and then they heard the front of the tent rustling again.

A man in a yellow shirt walked into the room with Donald and Goofy walking sadly behind him. Their eyes lit up when they saw the boys in front of them. "Sora! Luffy!" Goofy shouted.

Donald ran up to Sora and the two locked hands with excited smiles on their faces. Suddenly both of them remembered the fight back on the ship and they hmphed before turning the opposite direction of each other.

Luffy walked up behind them and bonked both of them on top of the heads with his fists. "Oi! Why'd you do that?" Donald yelled at him and Sora was glaring at him too.

"Felt like it," the pirate in the straw hat stated. They were having a stupid argument and he didn't feel like listening to it while the few members of his crew that he found were missing again.

"Who are you?" the man in the yellow shirt asked the people in front of him.

"That's him!" a man shouted from behind the hunter with the double barreled shotgun. "He's the pirate we're after!" Luffy snapped his head to the door of the tent and saw Marines charging into the room.

"Straw Hat Luffy," one of the marines surrounding the pirate started, "come with us quietly or we'll have to use force." The men were completely ignoring the child, duck, and weird dog thing that were in the room with the woman. She looked taken aback that the smiling person in front of her was under arrest.

"What do we do?" Goofy whispered.

"We're not supposed to be meddling," Donald responded.

"But they're not from this world either," Sora said back to him and all the men listening to this conversation looked at each other and started to get nervous. What did he mean by, 'this world?'

"I'm not going anywhere with..." Luffy's sentence was cut short by the sound of a gunshot. Everyone turned and stared at Clayton, the hunter, who had his gun pointed right at the pirate.

"Well then," the man smirked and turned to the closest soldier to him, "I heard there was a bounty on his head."

"There is," Luffy responded and the man and woman in the tent both looked shocked. The pirate grinned and lifted his head, showing them he was completely fine and the bullet only stretched his back out and then he snapped forward, making the bullet hit the floor right next to Clayton's feet. "But you're not getting it," the pirate lifted an arm and threw a fist forward, "Gum Gum Pistol!"

All the Marines were ready for him to stretch, but he stunned the woman researching the gorillas and the hunter who was punched out of the tent. "Hey Sora," Luffy said with a smirk and pointed at half the guys in the tent, "think you could take these guys?"

"No sweat," the boy replied and lifted his hands. His yellow Keyblade hilt formed in his hands and the men staring at him went wide-eyed at the sorcery. "Hi-ya!" He jumped forward and smashed the closest Marine's weapon away from his hand and then spun and knocked the guy's legs out from under him.

"What are you doing? We're the Marines! He's a pirate," the chubby man leading the Marine group shouted. "Associating with him makes you a pirate too."

"Cool!" Sora shouted and blocked a swipe from the closest Marine. He parried the strong soldier's attack and the man stumbled backwards in surprise of the kid's strength.

"Enough!" A voice boomed from the door of the tent and Luffy and Sora both gulped. Captain Smoker walked in the room and everyone froze what they were doing.

"Crap," Luffy muttered and the Disney Castle creatures stared at the pirate nervously.

"Wh-Who's that?" Goofy asked, raising his shield a little.

"Bad news," Sora replied and rose his Keyblade.

Smoker looked back and forth between the kid, the animals, and the pirate. "What are you doing with him?" Smoker asked. The white haired man had two cigars in his mouth and his arms started to turn into smoke, "Do you wish to be branded enemies of the World Government as well?"

"What World Government?" Jane suddenly cut in. The woman was staring confused at the uniformed men all around her. "I believe I have to ask you to leave this campsite. We are peaceful researchers of the gorilla's in this jungle."

_What World Government?_ Smoker turned to the woman to see if she was messing with him and Sora decided to take this moment to talk to the guy. The boy walked forward, because he wasn't allowed to let Jane hear about other worlds, and he started whispering, "We're not in our world anymore. I don't really know about the rules and laws there, but they don't apply here."

"Justice applies everywhere," Smoker responded to the strange kid and he rose his jutte, turning his body completely into smoke.

Luffy suddenly had a great idea as he thought back to Alabasta and when he saw his brother. Ace fought Smoker and gave them enough time to escape, which meant. "Hey Smoky, watch this," the Captain was already mad and now he rushed forward at the pirate taunting him. His eyes went wide as a long black and red blade that had a key on the end of it appeared in Luffy's hands, but even more so when the pirate held it out in front of him and shouted, "Fire!"

A fireball flew out and slammed into the cloud of smoke in front of him. Smoker felt hot and tried pushing through it but another fireball hit him from behind and he turned his head around to see the kid shooting another ball of fire at him.

"My research!" Jane shouted and the two stopped firing and turned to her.

"Sorry!" They shouted and Luffy and Sora ran over to the small pile of papers that caught fire and started blowing on them and trying to put them out. While they were bent down and trying to put out the flames, two Marines held up swords over them.

"WAWAWA!" Donald didn't want to get involved, but these guys had the Keyblades and King Mickey said they were supposed to follow them. He lifted his magic wand and two blasts of lightning came out of the sky and slammed into the men in front of him.

Another Marine was raising his gun, but Goofy jumped in front and lifted his shield. "Let's get out of here!" He shouted, hearing the loud clank on his weapon when the man fired and the bullet hit hard steel.

"Sorry Jane," Sora called back to the woman who was watching this all in piqued interest.

"It's quite alright," she waved out to them as they ran away. "Thank you for saving the research!"

The boys ran through the campsite and dodged the Heartless everywhere, making it out of there and into the jungle.

"Follow them!" Smoker yelled, aggravated he was held up for so long. _Since when can Mugiwara create fire? What was that child talking about other worlds?_

The group of men ran outside as another man was running towards them. "Sir," the man reported and his clothes were all torn up. He had blood on his uniform and scratches up and down his arms. "We need you back at the ship, we're under attack!"

"Is it Straw Hat's crew?" Corporal Steven asked from behind the Captain.

"No," the scared Private responded. "It's something I've never seen before, they're everywhere..." the man's eyes bugged out and he stumbled backwards where a strange red monkey was jumping up and down. It jumped up and clawed him in the back while the other Marines could only stare at the thing with eyes full of darkness. The man reporting to his officer fell to his knees and stared up at the sky with an open jaw as his chest lit up.

"What the-" Smoker's cigars fell out of his mouth as a red heart emerged from the man's chest. It was curved at the top like an actual heart shape and it floated into the air where it disappeared in a black ball with a purple center. The darkness bubbled for a few seconds and then another monkey jumped out of the ball, this one black, but it had the same dark eyes and started dancing with the first.

"Did he just, turn into that thing?" one of the men asked in a scared voice. Before they could think about it, five more of those black monkeys formed out of circles on the ground and started attacking them.

A shotgun blast sounded from behind them and Smoker turned to see the hunter who agreed to help them when they saw him earlier in the woods. The man blasted the closest monkey and it exploded into darkness, "Do you think you can track them?" Smoker asked the man.

Clayton was staring at the Heartless, interested in where they got their power, but he turned his head to the Captain with the strange power and nodded. He had a nasty snarl on his face and there was a huge red welt from where Luffy hit him. "Easily," the man replied.

"Steven," Smoker said and the chubby Corporal turned to their commanding officer. "Take control of things at the ship and bring the men back here to set up camp. I'm going after Straw Hat."

"Yes sir," the man said and then started charging through the aggressive monkeys on this island with his men following behind him.

Smoker turned to Clayton and nodded, "Let's go."

* * *

"Donald no!" Sora shouted and jumped in front of the duck wearing all blue. "That's Tarzan, he helped us escape from a tiger earlier."

The magician lowered his wand hesitantly as he stared at the jungle man holding the sharp spear in front of them. Donald hmphed and looked away from Sora who did the same, neither wanting to talk to each other at the moment.

"Hey," Luffy walked towards the shirtless man, and Tarzan tilted his head a little. "Have you see my nakama. Usopp and Nami?"

"What about my friends, Riku and Kairi?" Sora turned from Donald and looked over at Tarzan who seemed to recognize those names.

"Riku," Tarzan said slowly, "find Riku. Friends?"

"Yeah that's right!" Sora shouted and jumped for joy. Luffy was pretty excited they were going to find the other kid too and everywhere they went they seemed to find more of their friends. "Can you take us to Riku?"

Tarzan looked like he was deep in though for a few seconds, deciding whether or not he could trust these people. Finally he nodded and said, "Tarzan speak to Kerchak."

The jungle man ran off and the others started chasing after him. "Who's Kerchak?" Sora asked the others who just shrugged, not really understanding much of what the man says.

They ran through the jungle and fought off weird creatures all over the place before getting to a river. There were hippos all over the place and they watched as Tarzan jumped on their backs to get from one to the next. Luffy thought it was fun and started jumping after him.

"Can't you just grab the vines over there and pull yourself over?" Sora asked the rubber man who was laughing as he jumped on each of the animals' backs.

"Yeah," Luffy answered. He turned around with his eyes closed and a grin across his face, "but this is more fun."

Sora smiled back at him, but the next hippo Luffy was about to step on decided it wanted to go under and dropped under the surface. The pirate didn't know what went wrong since he wasn't looking where he was going and fell into the water. "Hahaha!" Sora laughed and pointed at the spot where Luffy splashed in. He was going to make fun of the man for falling into the water, but then it hit him.

"Why isn't he coming up?" Goofy asked.

"Crap I forgot!" Sora dove into the water after his hippo and swam down. The lake was deeper than it looked and he swam past the animals until he reached the man who was swinging his arms around and flailing wildly. _Sorry Luffy,_ the boy thought as he started swimming back up to the surface with his friend in tow.

Both of them got above water and started gasping for breath. "Thanks," Luffy finally mentioned after getting the water out of his lungs. He stood back up and jumped to the next hippo before reaching up and grabbing the vine they saw Tarzan climb up earlier.

"You're welcome," Sora muttered with drenched clothes. He heard laughing behind him and turned around fast, glaring at the duck who had his hands clasping his bill shut. It was obvious from the laughter who it was, but Donald still tried to hide it.

* * *

"AAAaaaAAAaaaAAA!"

Luffy, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Tarzan turned their heads to the right. They just climbed up a tall green vine and were high in the tree canopies when they heard the shout. "What the-" Sora began and his eyes opened wide as he saw what, or who, was coming right towards them.

The muscular man swinging from the vine got to the top of his arc and released, grabbing the next one with the same arm. It would be easier swinging with one arm to the next, but his left arm was currently occupied holding the passenger close to him.

Nami's cheeks were bright red and she tried hard to hold in her screams every time they flew from one vine to the next with nothing holding them up. The orange haired girl quickly became hot in the dense, humid jungle, so she was only wearing a bikini while Usopp held her against his bare, sweaty chest.

_How could I have agreed to this? _Nami thought and then saw the small group on a thick canopy of leaves in front of her. It made her blush harder and she wished she never accepted this strange way of traveling through the trees. _Though it is fun, _she smiled, thinking about the wind rushing past her face as they swung through the trees. _And I have an excuse to be this close to Usopp's bod- ahh! Stop right there! _The girl clenched her eyes shut and calmed down her breathing as Usopp released from the final branch and used his swinging arm to hold up Nami's legs.

Sora stared in awe as Usopp landed in front of them with Nami held in his arms bridal style. The man with the long nose smirked and looked around at the group he'd been looking for all day. "Usopp!" Luffy yelled and couldn't be happier to see his nakama. "Nami too, why are you so red?" The captain added once he saw the navigator in Usopp's arms.

"I'm not!" Nami shouted and jumped out of the sniper's arms quickly. She brushed herself down to get off some of Usopp's sweat and then looked around, "We're the last ones huh? Is the ship alright?"

"Yes," Donald hmphed, "no thanks to him," he shoved a thumb in Sora's direction.

"It was an accident jeez," the kid growled at the duck and crossed his arms, looking away.

Tarzan looked at the strange people who recently arrived and then to Sora, "Friends?"

The boy smiled at Tarzan and nodded. He started frowning again, "Riku, you said you know where Riku is?"

"See Kerchak," the jungle man suggested and then ran towards the other side of the treetop. He leapt off and grabbed a vine, swinging off again.

"Woohoo!" Luffy ran after him and jumped up, grabbing the vine too. Sora was right behind him followed by the two Disney creatures.

"Wait! We just got here," Nami called after them. She'd hoped to talk some things over like how Usopp had to beat up a group of Marines they ran into before, and how those Heartless things were all over the place, but no such luck. She sighed and heard someone clear his throat right next to her.

"Uh, do you think you can swing those vines?" Usopp asked and Nami realized what just happened, and what was about to. She slowly shook her head and then felt a strong arm wrap around her. She screamed as Usopp sprinted to the edge and jumped off with her in his arm. The muscular man in nothing but shorts smirked as he held Nami to him. _Damn being strong feels good,_ he thought and wondered how he ever lasted in the crew as the weakest member.

The large, strange group swung through the forest until Tarzan landed on another thick treetop and the others dropped next to him. As soon as Usopp landed, Nami jumped out of his arms this time to avoid any awkward questions. She was about to ask what they were doing here when she saw movement on a tree branch above them.

Two large gorillas were up there looking down at them. "Ee ee oo oo oo..." Tarzan started a long speech in... monkey? No one could understand what he was saying though Luffy kept nodding as he could somehow get the gist of the conversation. The large black alpha male gorilla didn't respond the entire time while Tarzan seemed to plead his case.

"He's asking the gorilla to help find Riku," Luffy explained and the others nodded, not questioning the crazy captain. The man grabbed the straw hat on his back and plopped it on his head. "Someone's coming," Luffy didn't know how he knew, but something was bugging him and he peered over the side of the tree.

There were four Marines far below them running through the trees. They looked like they were panicking, and rightfully so as a Heartless blue monkey jumped out of nowhere and tackled one of the men into a bush where a scream rang out followed by silence. The other three freaked out and started firing.

Kerchak heard the gunshots and glared at Tarzan. The gorilla looked away and climbed off through the trees against Tarzan's protests.

The others looked down where Ludfy was already staring and saw two more blue monkeys fly out of nowhere and tackle two of the other men. The men struggled for a few seconds and then large red hearts floated out of their bodies shrouded in a black haze. They disappeared and in their places were two more of those Heartless creatures.

The remaining Marine drew his sword and held it out in front of him shakily. The pirates were staring down at him unmoving, but Sora was already in action, not going to wait and watch another person get killed.

The boy was dropping out of the trees and kicked off the trunk of one, then bouncing off another as the Keyblade formed in his hand. "Blizzard!" The kid shouted as he dropped in front of the man and held out his weird weapon. Ice shards flew out and smashed into the four monkeys leaping at him, knocking them back but not killing them. "Blizzard!" He shouted again and this time the monkeys exploded and the kid grinned, flipping around his weapon and holding it out in front of him where it disappeared.

"Wh-Who are you?" The scared Marine asked with his sword still raised.

"I'm Sora," the boy replied and looked up. The rest of the group was either climbing down or dropping out of the tree.

The Marine in the dirty, ripped uniform panicked when he saw Straw Hat Luffy drop in front of him. "Captain Smo-" the man started to yell but Usopp sprinted up to him and covered his mouth with his right hand.

"We don't need Smoker coming here right now," Nami said and Sora nodded.

"Smoker?" Goofy thought back to the guy with the weird smoke power in the tent.

"A marine with a Logia Devil Fruit," Usopp exclaimed, "bad news for us." He looked towards the man who was freaking out at the big man cupping his mouth. "If you promise not to scream, I'll let go since we saved you. Got it?"

The man nodded and Usopp moved his hand. Tarzan was watching interestedly the whole time, confused at why the people who just saved this man also seemed hostile towards him. "Logia's the type that's near impossible to fight right?" Sora asked.

"No one can hurt Captain Smoker," the Marine agreed. The man considered running off as soon as Usopp released him, but being alone in the woods with these creepy monsters was even worse than spending his time with pirates. "I'm Yussaf by the way," he paused and turned to the kid with the spiky brown hair, "Thanks for saving me."

"You're welcome," Sora said and scratched the back of his head with a grin. He liked helping people, it felt good.

"EE OO!" A loud gorilla screamed off in the trees a little. Tarzan snapped his head over and pointed with his spear.

"The Heartless must be after the gorillas!" Nami exclaimed, raising her clima-tact and putting it together.

"Let's go!" Luffy yelled and charged off with Tarzan at the forefront.

Sora started chasing after them and Yussaf ran up alongside him, "Why are you with these pirates?" The man in white asked the strange kid with brown spiky hair. "Pirates pillage towns and make the people of the world scared in their own homes. They disrupt the peace and cause violence everywhere they go."

The guy was whispering so the pirates running with them wouldn't hear, but Usopp looked over to the two and waited for Sora's reaction. The boy never looked at the Marine running with him, he kept sprinting forward while he talked. "Because since I've met them, they've only tried helping me and other people we meet. I don't care if you've branded them as evil, I'll make that decision for myself." The man was shocked by the response enough to slow down and Sora got out of his sight.

When the group made it through the woods and into the clearing, every one of them paused and their eyes went wide. They were at the start of a trail of broken trees in the woods, leading off the other direction from where they entered. There were broken shards of wood and rubble all over the place. Yussaf recognized where they were and started sprinting down the path of broken trees towards their battleship.

"Hey, hold up," Sora shouted after him but the man kept running.

"Look!" Luffy pointed at a different section of the destroyed jungle and there was a small female gorilla with her back to a tree, surrounded by blue monkey Heartless. The group instantly flew into action, pulling out Keyblades and weapons of different sorts.

When they defeated the creatures, the gorilla thanked them and ran into the jungle. They heard another scream, but this time it sounded more human. "Wait," Donald started and looked down the path, "didn't that sound like..."

"Yussaf!" Sora started running and the others chased him down the path of destroyed trees until they found what destroyed them in the first place. A Marine battleship was oddly sticking up in the middle of the forest, obviously the cause of all this destruction.

The man Sora saved earlier jumped off of the ship and started running towards them like his life depended on it. "Yussaf, what's wrong?" Sora called over.

_**CRASH! **_The cabin of the battleship exploded outwards, wood shards flying everywhere. A huge chunk fell on top of the retreating Marine and Sora shouted, but he managed to dodge roll out of the way before a piece hit him too. Donald created a fireball that destroyed the piece coming towards him and Goofy rose his shield.

Luffy tried rolling out of the way, but another large piece was coming in the spot he rolled to. He tried jumping to move again, but he was too slow and his legs were nicked by a piece of wood, flipping him in midair so he hit the ground face-first.

Nami held up her clima tact in an attempt to stop the piece coming towards her, but as it approached insanely fast she didn't think she would be able to stop it. "Ahh!" the piece never hit and the woman opened her clenched eyes. Usopp was smiling down at her, being a few inches taller than the woman. His chest was facing her and his arms were spread out, but his back... "Usopp!" she shouted as his eyes started to close and he fell to his knees.

The orange haired woman fell under him and propped him up before he hit the ground. His head had a bump on it and there were a few wood shards sticking out of his back. "Luffy!" she shouted and the rubber pirate got off the ground and looked over towards her.

"Wawawawa!" Donald shouted and tackled Luffy out of the way.

"What was that for?!" the pirate yelled. He was worried about his crewmate, and now the duck was tackling him for no reason.

Sora ran up alongside Donald and Luffy, and Goofy ran to the other side. "Look closer," the kid said with his Keyblade forming in his hand. Luffy stared at the spot he was just standing in, and he saw a shimmer of something there, something big. "It's invisible," the kid said in awe.

Tarzan charged at the invisible monster and jumped up in the air, but he was smacked away so hard he flew towards the wreckage of the battleship and slammed into the deck. "It's really big," Sora muttered and took a step back.

Luffy looked back towards Nami who was holding Usopp's head in her lap and trying to get him awake. "We have to take it down ourselves," the pirate stated and punched his fists together. _It hit Tarzan mid-flight, so it must be fast. And it knocked him across the battlefield, so it has to be strong too. Guess it's time to try the new technique,_ the pirate smirked and bent his knees, putting one fist on the ground, "Let's do this."

**A/N You know what time it is! Luffy's coming up with new techniques to match the increasingly stronger and faster enemies, just like in One Piece. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and if you're wondering why it's ending here and not at the end of the Deep Jungle arc, this is going to be longer than the Coliseum and Wonderland, so hold onto your horses, as there might be two or three more chapters on this world.**

zack25king

Now that's different, Spongebob huh? Not bad really enjoyed it! Now Deep jungle is looking interesting, and the confrontion with Zoro is something I can't wait to see!

**Thanks! I just kind of had the idea and decided to roll with it. Zoro was stuck in the cosmos for who knows how long, probably waiting for his captain who never came. It's going to be an intense reunion when it comes.**

nightmaster000

Another awesome chapter. Interesting twist seeing Smoker show up.

**Yeah he's a great character in One Piece because he's a Marine you want to root for, though you don't want him getting Luffy. His men are quickly getting picked off by the powerful Heartless of this world and he's rolling with Clayton, not the best friend to make... And Tashigi goes missing before they get sucked into this world, so where could she be? Who knows?! I certainly don't XD, but I've got some ideas. Thanks for the review and I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. 'Till next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Sora asked Luffy. The pirate pushed his legs down hard and did the same with his right hand. His skin pumped and then stretched back to normal.

The boy in the straw hat pumped again and grit his teeth. His blood was rushing much faster than usual and his skin started changing shades from pale to more red. Steam began rising from his skin as he pumped again and looked up. "Gear Second!"

"Dodge!" Donald yelled at the seemingly stupid pirate who wasn't running. The rest of them felt the ground start shaking as whatever was in front of them started charging. Sora didn't run like Goofy and Donald and instead dodge rolled towards it and then to the right when he saw the sliver of air in front of him.

The boy jumped out of the roll and swiped a triple combo at the beast in midair. He tried landing and backing up away from it, but he was smacked by something large and invisible. It knocked him on his back where he skid backwards.

The kid kicked his legs up and sprang himself up to his feet. He took a deep breath and winced from the pain of the powerful attack, much stronger than the normal Heartless. The monster that was charging their way before was now focused on the steaming red pirate. It was mid-sprint when Luffy disappeared to the shock of Sora and the Disney creatures.

Whatever they were attacking wasn't as surprised though, it stopped its charge and instantly changed directions towards the right where no one was standing. Luffy appeared hovering in the spot near the base of the warship and he had an open palm out in front of him with his left fist pulled back.

"Gum Gum," the pirate began and then his fist flew forward so fast it was barely visible to the people present. "Jet Pistol!" The pirate yelled as he punched, "Ahh!" He yelled after his fist slammed into the invisible monster.

The pirate snapped his arm back and looked at his fist. Whatever he punched wasn't charging at him anymore; telling from the way the rubble on the ground moved, it was knocked back a few yards by the attack. However, the spot he punched the invisible creature was something sharp and he slashed his hand open on the knuckles.

"Yow yow yow," the pirate blew on the cut and then looked back forward more seriously as he felt the vibration on the ground. Whatever he was fighting wasn't down, Luffy's attack only seemed to make it angry and they finally heard from the monster for the first time.

_**EEEEAACCCHHK**_

The screech was scary, causing both Donald and Goofy to gulp as they held their weapons tighter. This huge invisible enemy was definitely a Heartless, but it was unlike any they had fought before. "There it is!" Sora yelled and ran past Donald and Goofy, holding his Keyblade in both hands on his right side. The Disney creatures looked at each other and nodded, charging forward as well.

"WAWAWA!" Donald locked on to the creature and used thunder magic, calling down bolts of lightning on the creature that screeched again and charged their direction. Goofy ran in front of his comrade and held up his shield to try pushing through it, but the beast trampled right through him and then smacked Donald with what felt like a huge claw, throwing him across the destroyed area into a tree.

"Donald!" Sora yelled and hit the invisible form in the side a few times before rolling away to dodge the attack he knew was coming down on his head.

Luffy appeared hovering between the beast and the kid to stop it from charging at his friend. The steaming pirate stuck both of his legs out towards his foe and shouted, "Gum Gum Stamp Gattling Gun!" His feet started flying incredibly fast at the monster, but after a few hits, his legs were slamming into the ground without any effect. "Damn, where'd it go?!"

"Behind you!" Sora yelled and Luffy turned to see the kid running at him, but then there was a sliver of something an inch away from his face. In his Second Gear he was fast, and his dodge almost pulled his whole body away quick enough, almost. He was nicked in the face by whatever hit him and when he cartwheeled away from the monster, he reached up his bloody hand and touched the scratch on his face. _Damn, _he was panting hard and he fell out of his Second Gear state, _I knew I'd get much faster, but I didn't think it would tire me out so fast._

When the monster hit Luffy, Sora got pissed. Donald and Goofy were sitting on the ground a good distance away and they were rubbing their heads. Both of them looked too disoriented and damaged to keep going, and none of them had stocked up on potions since the last trip to Traverse Town.

The fourteen year old saw Luffy panting hard and understood that whatever Luffy did took a lot of energy. "Damn," he growled and charged at the monster that turned towards him and started charging as well. "Take this! FIRE!" He pointed his weapon and the tip of it glowed bright orange before a fireball shot out and slammed into the creature. His attack didn't slow it down so he yelled, "FIRE! FIRE FIRE FIRE!" he used up all the mana he had, but on the fifth fireball the creature stopped and roared.

_**EEEEEAAAACCCCCAACCKK!**_ The beast started shimmering more and more, and then it slowly became visible. Sora took a small step back and was panting as hard as Luffy was, only the younger kid felt more afraid as he stared at the lizard. The huge chameleon was green and yellow, and it reared its two front legs up as it glared at Sora with a beady orange eye.

The boy was taking another step back and his leg was halfway in the air when he froze. Images of Riku and Kairi flashed through Sora's mind and his right leg slammed down on the ground hard.

Donald and Goofy were shaking their heads and they lifted themselves up to their feet. The two of them stared across the battlefield where Sora was standing sideways in a fighting stance with his Keyblade risen and a furious expression on his face. "I will save my friends!" He charged and lifted up his Keyblade to bring it down on his enemy.

As Sora was charging, the monster's eyes started glowing blue. "Look out!" Luffy shouted as he charged forward to distract the monster. Before he could reach, the blue glows shot out of the creature's eyes and slammed into Sora, knocking the boy backwards where he skid across the ground all the way to Nami who was still trying to wake Usopp up.

She looked next to her where Sora tried to get up and could only make it to one knee. "Sora," she whispered then looked back at her muscular friend, "Usopp." She heard a loud quack for help and looked up. She saw Luffy get smacked away by a claw at the same time that two more blue lights locked on to Donald and Goofy and took back down the Disney creatures. "Mina," she whispered. Against this monster, she didn't think her Clima-Tact had what it takes, especially after Donald used his lightning magic several times to no avail.

Something caught her eye and she looked over at where her captain was standing up, his straw hat clinging to his back by the string around his neck. "Luffy!" she shouted as she saw him bloody and in pain.

"It's almost beaten," he stated. Nami had no idea how he would know this, but Luffy just did. "I only need one more hit," he stared down at his right hand and lifted it up, sticking his thumb in his mouth. "Gum Gum, Bone Balloon!" He yelled and Nami watched with Sora who lifted his head up while panting on one knee. Both of them gasped as Luffy's right hand expanded to at least four times the size of his own body. "Giganto Pistol!"

The creature was charging a long ranged attack with its glowing eyes again, and when it fired the two balls of blue light locked on to Luffy. The pirate held back his huge fist and then threw it forward with his rubber powers, sending the massive fist crashing straight into the energy balls and right through them, burning his hand, but not slowing it down as the fist continued flying and slammed straight into the beast behind it.

Luffy yelled as his fist crashed into the lizard, "RaaaAAA!" He pushed harder into it and the monster that was filled with darkness started sliding back on its hind feet. Finally it got lifted off the ground and the fist knocked it all the way back into the battleship that exploded in a hundred directions from the force of the beast hitting it.

"Amazing!" Sora shouted, pulling himself back up to his feet as some of his strength returned. Donald and Goofy were still down, but Nami got up too and felt the danger was gone so she could take a few steps away from Usopp.

Luffy grinned and took deep breaths as his fist deflated back to a normal size. However, normal size was proportionate to his body, which now made Sora and Nami gasp considering he shrank down to a tenth of his usual height. "Huh?" he questioned in a high-pitched voice, "I didn't know that would happen. Weird."

The other two sweatdropped at Luffy's power's strange aftereffect, but then all three started laughing. They turned and watched as the creature that was slammed into the battleship stumbled out and their smiles went away. "It's not-" Nami started but then stopped as the beast wasn't getting back to fight.

It stumbled forward a few steps with static flying out from it, but then it lifted up on its back legs and collapsed backwards. Its stomach opened up in a bright flash of white light and a large red heart lifted from its body before disappearing. The rest of the monster was engulfed in light for a second, and then it disappeared.

A lot of small health balls and money dropped from it when it vanished, and as much as Nami wanted to sprint in and grab all the cash, she knew she would accidentally grab the green balls as well. "Hold on," she told the two boys who looked ready to run in and grab the mystery items that dropped in the middle of the balls.

Nami ran back and grabbed Usopp under the shoulders. He was a lot heavier now with all his muscle weight, but she was able to drag him over and drop him in the center of all the health balls. The little orbs sucked into his body and after a few seconds, she could see the cuts going away and Usopp's eyes opened up. He lifted up to his feet and Sora smiled at the quick thinking.

As he ran over with Luffy to get Tarzan, Donald, and Goofy to put in the rest of the orbs and try to heal them at least a little, Usopp looked down at Nami who was a few inches shorter than him. She was standing a foot away and he smiled at her, "Thanks Nami, I owe you one," he was talking about her healing him, but the woman just shook her head at him.

"You owe _me_ one?" she asked and lifted her head up to meet his gaze. He almost gasped at the teary-eyed look she was giving him. "You saved me on Destiny Islands, then again at the Colosseum you jumped in front of Cerberus's attack," she pounded a fist on his chest and rested her head on it too, "And now here..."

"Nami," he whispered and the woman looked up at the smiling man with a long nose. "We're nakama," he stated and her eyes opened wider, "I'll always be there to save you." She blinked a few times to make sure she heard right, but then she smiled too and the two of their heads moved closer towards each other.

"Donald!" Sora shouted as the duck he placed on a pile of green orbs started to regain consciousness. The boy was too focused to realize what the tan muscular man and the orange haired girl were talking about when he interrupted them, but the two heard the kid so close and instantly backed apart with red cheeks.

The duck quacked a few times and then sat up, "We beat it?" he asked. He smiled at Sora and the kid smiled back, but then both turned away from each other with small frowns on their faces, wondering why they were even still made at each other, but too proud to admit they were wrong.

"Yep," Luffy replied with a smirk as Donald and Tarzan were coming to as well. Finally Sora ran into the center where a box was sitting and he found a mega potion inside. _I'll save that for later,_ he thought and then grabbed the second thing that made him smile wide.

He tossed it up and it surrounded him, Luffy, and Donald making the other two look his way. "Cure," the boy said and the other two magicians grinned as well, "we learned new magic!" As this was happening, a few of them noticed that creatures were walking slowly out of the jungle around them.

Tarzan looked around as his family came marching towards them. The gorillas were saved a few times by this strange group, and Kerchak watched them defeat the monster who was terrorizing his people. The gorilla walked right up to Luffy and Sora who were standing next to each other and he looked them over before grunting in gorilla. Kerchak turned and started walking away.

Tarzan was about to say something to the group of people, but Luffy started first, "He wants us to follow him." Then the pirate walked off after the gorilla with an excited look of finding more adventure on the way. The others all started laughing at how Luffy was able to understand these strange creatures. They started following him though, and the whole group trekked through the jungle together with the gorillas.

* * *

"Captain Smoker!" a man charged out of the bushes and Clayton and Smoker both turned towards him.

"Corporal!" Smoker called out and his lower half turned to smoke as he rushed over and grabbed the chubby man to hold him steady. "What happened? I told you to stay with the ship."

Corporal Steven was panting hard and his right arm was covered in blood. Smoker asked him if he was alright and the man looked at his arm, "This isn't my blood," he replied in almost a whisper, making Smoker feel a sense of dread wash over him. "Those creatures, they were everywhere. Our guns did barely anything against them, then, then," he broke off and coughed as he fell to his knees, this time his own blood splattering out of his mouth. "Something attacked the ship, something we couldn't even see."

Clayton was amazed that these dark creatures were powerful enough to take on this entire military. "To think they were this strong," he clenched his fists and muttered, "if I had that type of power..."

"Where are the rest of the men?!" Smoker asked the Corporal who he helped back up to his feet.

"A few of us made it away from the ship, but the monkeys, they were everywhere." The man paused and looked up into his Captain's eyes, "I'm the only one who made it here."

Smoker's lower lip dropped and he stared at his last man. _Tashigi, men,_ he thought and grinded his teeth together in fury. Suddenly the bushes behind Steven started rustling and he pushed his subordinate behind him. "I won't let them hurt any more of my men!" He yelled and his arms turned to smoke as the creatures full of darkness burst through the bushes.

A wall of smoke formed and fists started flying out of it and knocking the creatures away as Smoker roared out in anger and vengeance. Steven was watching his Captain and believed that maybe Smoker could do it, until he saw a few of the creatures coming from behind him.

The Corporal spun around and was going to shout for his superior officer, when he saw the hunter in the yellow shirt turn towards the monkeys as well and lower his weapon. The blue monkeys with black eyes ran straight towards him, but he didn't run, he embraced them. The Marine watching stumbled back and yelped, causing Smoker to turn away from the enemies he was facing and look towards Clayton who was being surrounded in darkness.

Every monkey in the area started dancing around and stopped trying to attack as black tendrils came out of the darkness beneath Clayton's feet and wrapped around him. "This strength, this power!" The man yelled and dropped his shotgun, lifting up his hands that were overflowing with darkness. "It feels amazing!"

"What are you doing?!" Smoker yelled over at the man he was working with to find the pirates.

Clayton's eyes snapped to the Captain across the rocky area from him. The bushes behind Smoker were silent as the dark monkeys sank back into the ground, leaving only the three men there. "I don't need your help any longer," the man said and laughed with his head lifted up towards the sky. "I don't know what Marines and World Government you kept talking about, but you were too weak, just as I thought."

"Don't insult us Marines!" Steven said as he pushed himself back up to his feet and drew a pistol from his belt.

Clayton rose an arm towards the man as Steven fired. A wall of darkness rose in between them and the bullet disappeared as soon as it hit. Then a black hand reached out of the wall and grabbed the Marine, dragging him back towards the darkness. "Stop!" Smoker yelled and his lower half turned to smoke so he could quickly make it across the battlefield.

"It's not, me," Clayton mumbled as he tried to let go of the Marine, but the hand stayed clasped around him. The hunter began to panic as he watched the black strings of darkness seep into his nose and then his mouth. His panic only sped up the process as the darkness began to consume him. "Help, me, arrrgggh!"

Smoker wasn't concerned with the hunter as much as he was his last man. He reached out towards Steven as the Corporal's lower half got sucked into darkness. The marine in the tattered uniform reached back with his right arm covered in his comrades' blood, and then he was completely sucked in right before Smoker could grab him.

The Captain dropped out of the air and tumbled across the rocky surface. He was surrounded by cliffs on three sides with a forest on the other. He was flying too fast that he skid across the ground all the way into the wall where he finally stopped and turned back furiously towards the hunter. "Clayton," he growled but the hunter stopped struggling and turned slowly to face him.

Smoker instantly noticed the difference in the hunter's usual cocky expression, and the blank one he had now. As he stared at the man, an intense hatred was building up inside him from the loss of all his comrades. _You bastard!_

The man before him had darkness surrounding his feet although the large black wall and the tendrils that were warping around him earlier were gone. Clayton lifted up his fists and darkness seeped between his knuckles as he glared right back at the Marine.

* * *

The large group traveling through the woods was pretty silent. Donald and Sora were walking next to each other, but both had their heads turned different directions and weren't talking. Goofy sighed behind them and just followed, tired of their petty fight that should have ended already. Nami and Usopp were walking very close, but the two of them were looking different directions and had red blushes on their faces.

Luffy was the only one being loud as he tried talking to the young gorilla that seemed very interested in Donald. Tarzan treated the guy like he was his brother, and the gorilla seemed to almost tease him when Tarzan stopped to grab Jane first. The woman was amazed and taking notes as she walked with the gorillas towards a clearing in the forest.

Suddenly the group stopped as Kerchak heard a noise up ahead and held up a hand. Everyone paused and then they heard a loud crash and the ground shook a little. "Whoohoo!" Luffy started sprinting forward with Sora and the others in their group sighed before chasing after them.

The gorillas stayed back, and when the group charged into the clearing, they paused and watched from the tree line. Every single one of them stopped upon exiting the forest and stared in shock at what they saw before them. "Smoker!" Nami and Usopp exclaimed as they saw the white haired man on one knee backed up against a rock wall that had pieces chipped out of it.

"Mr. Clayton!" Jane exclaimed and stepped forward. "What are you doing?!"

The hunter was standing in front of the Marine and he looked more buff than earlier, with his yellow shirt unbuttoned down the middle. Luffy had a bad feeling in his gut and Smoker turned towards them. The Marine Captain was too busy right now to worry about Straw Hat and he tried saying something, but Tarzan was first.

"Ee, oo, oo oo ah," he said and glared at the man in front of them. "Not Clayton. Ee, oo, oo oo ah."

"What does he mean, not Clayton?" Sora asked nervously as the hunter turned towards them. Clayton's blank facial expression sent shivers down a lot of their spines, and most of them were still tired from their last fight.

Clayton looked over at them and then back at Smoker who was getting to his feet again. "You shouldn't be able to hit me," the Marine muttered, "I'm smoke." He charged again and this time was careful to dodge as Clayton punched towards him. He went for a punch of his own and shouted, "White Blow!" His fist shot out towards the Marine who thought he had an extra second to move, and the fist slammed straight into him.

The hunter's head snapped back, and Smoker's hand flew back and reconnected with his arm. "Don't mess with the Marines," he growled and got ready to attack again.

The others thought Smoker had him there, but their eyes went wide as Clayton's head lowered back down and his eyes were no longer white, but black with red pupils. Darkness started seeping out of his body, covering him. His muscular chest buffed up a little more and they heard the man beneath the growing darkness scream in agony. "He lost control," Smoker shouted. There was no way he was asking the pirate for help, but he figured Straw Hat was going to jump in anyway which would definitely help if his most powerful attack from point blank didn't work.

"Clayton," Jane whispered but Tarzan pulled her back and pointed towards the woods where the gorillas were watching from. She hesitated, but then nodded her head and ran off over there where the small gorilla grabbed onto her hand to comfort her.

The darkness started to go away, but Clayton's skin was a darker shade now, looking almost blue. The man underneath was smiling, but his smile was too wide for a normal human. His yellow shirt was discarded, leaving his muscular purplish body uncovered until the waist. "Now," Luffy said as he cracked his knuckles. The pirate took a few steps forward and glared at his opponent, "Bring it on!" A Keyblade formed in his right hand and a yellow hilt appeared in Sora's hand as a Keyblade formed for him too.

Usopp stood behind his captain on the left of him and Nami stood a little behind him while attaching her Clima-Tact, not willing to sit another fight out while everyone else fought. Smoker looked over at the three pirates, and then at the three on the right of them. Sora stood directly next to Luffy, only he had both of his hands on the hilt of his blade as his ready stance. Behind him slightly to the right stood the tall dog guy holding up a shield, and behind him to the farthest right stood the short duck wearing all blue and holding up a wand.

It was a strange sight to behold, but at the same time, Smoker believed they were going to be able to take down this monster together. _Then, it's Mugiwara's turn!_

**A/N Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed. Leave me a review telling me what you thought of the battle!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Sorry for such a long update time. Kind of forgot about this story for a little while. So many stories I am in the middle of, but this one is one where I actually have an ending I can plan for in sight. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter I've had written out for a while as I get to work on this story again.**

* * *

"What happened to that hunter?" Luffy asked the Disney court magician next to him.

"How should I know?!" Donald exclaimed as the group charged the man.

"He looks like a Heartless," Goofy commented and everyone had to agree that he definitely looked evil.

"Agghhh," the man with purple tinted skin grabbed the side of his head in pain and then looked up with a wicked smile towards Smoker who was running around his right side to flank him. Clayton chuckled menacingly and his black eyes formed small red pupils in the center. He charged at Smoker with more speed than he had in the past, coming right up to the Marine and punching forward.

Smoker didn't try to dodge the first punch; he was reliant on his Logia Devil Fruit power and it had never failed him before. It was a mistake to be too cocky. Now he knew he could be hit, but the hunter still came at him too fast and caught him off guard. The fist slammed into the Captain's face and pushed into his skin, not allowing him to turn into smoke as darkness rippled around Clayton's knuckles. The hunter pushed down off of the fist and slammed Smoker into the ground.

Sora jumped up in the air as the Marine bounced across the ground under him. After seeing how afraid Luffy was of the guy when they first arrived on the planet, the fact that he was being tossed around like that made the child nervous.

"Guess I have no choice," Luffy muttered and stopped running. The pirate put his right fist on the ground and looked up at the foe who started charging towards him. Usopp hadn't seen this the first time so he looked back in shock as Luffy's skin pumped and his skin started to glow red. The pirate still didn't have much control over this move and he had to pump again to get the steam to start flowing off his body; the heat of his blood pumping faster showing through to the outside.

Clayton sprinted straight towards Luffy. He punched Sora out of the way as the kid rose his Keyblade slower than the man was punching. Then he jumped over the fireball that Donald shot at him and right over the dog person who tried to ram him with his shield. He pulled an arm back, but his target vanished.

The hunter slammed into the ground where Luffy was just standing and his punch made a crater in the floor that crumbled in, then doubled, and tripled in size as rocks flew up all around. After the first crater, Nami's eyes went wide, then it tripled and her jaw dropped as her eyes popped out of her head. The crazed man turned to her and she took a step back, but a muscular arm put itself between her and Clayton and the hunter's eyes switched from Nami to Usopp who stepped in front and rose his sword.

Usopp was amazed at his captain's speed though he was still able to follow Luffy as the pirate shot above Clayton and pulled his right fist back. The rubber man held his left palm out in front of him, and then slammed his right fist down hard. The muscular hunter jumped backwards right as the fist slammed into where he was standing and made the crater even larger.

Rock chunks flew everywhere and Sora had to dodge roll to avoid one as it was headed straight for him. He started sprinting forward with Tarzan while Luffy was falling to the ground. The two of them swerved back and forth between each other and then met with Clayton in the middle of the battlefield.

The boy was faster this time and brought up his Keyblade in an uppercut across Clayton's chest. The man rose an arm and stopped the blade, but then Tarzan's spear caught him in the left shoulder. Clayton growled and his wide smile dropped into a nasty snarl as he reached up with his left hand and grabbed the spear, not letting the ape man pull it out. At the same time he sidestepped Sora's second attack and punched the kid.

Sora lifted up the hilt of his blade at the last second and protected his face from what would have been a devastating punch. He was still knocked back several feet and looked up just in time to see Tarzan being thrown across the field at him and they both tumbled backwards.

Nami watched as Goofy charged in only to be swatted away in a similar fashion. "WAWAWA!" Donald ran forward and jumped in the air with his wand raised. A bolt of lightning came down and slammed into the top of Clayton's head, making the hunter roar and turn Donald's direction.

He stomped on the floor and a huge chunk of rock lifted up in front of him. One punch at it, and the chunk of floor flew straight at Donald and knocked the duck back into Goofy who was also lying there. Sora tried healing all his friends, but he only got out one Cure before he felt he was spent. _Using Cure isn't like the others, it drains me much quicker!_ He realized this and wished he had healed Donald instead of Tarzan first, so that the more trained magician duck could heal him and Goofy.

Luffy saw the duck fly past him and he snapped his head back over at Clayton. He was standing on the right side of the man, Smoker was getting up on the left side, and Usopp was walking forward with both hands on his broadsword from the front. Luffy held the white hilt of his black Keyblade in his right hand, clenching his left fist at his other side, "Attack!"

The pirate vanished to most people's eyes except for the three he was with in the middle of the rocky area. Smoker didn't like listening to Straw Hat, but he agreed attacking together was the best strategy and he planted both hands on the ground, surrounding the four of them in a smoke pillar that was hollow on the inside where Clayton was standing.

The hunter spun his head around as suddenly all his opponents had become invisible. A fist made of smoke flew out of the spinning cloud of white around him and spun his head with a powerful punch. He tried to punch back, but the hand was gone and a rubber fist slammed into his back, knocking him to his knees. Clayton roared in a low voice and darkness filled the floor at his feet, wrapping around his legs and up his body. He screamed again and this time it wasn't in the low voice, but instead his own as he screamed in pain.

Clayton looked up as he sensed something, but he was too slow. A tan-skinned muscular man was falling out of the air above him with his legs thrown back and his arms held above his head with a broadsword in them. "Yaaa!" Usopp brought down his weapon and cut Clayton deep in the left shoulder before the man could raise his right hand and stop the blade from going all the way through.

Another rubber fist was coming at him from behind, so he moved slightly out of the way and the fist slammed into the muscular man holding the sword in his arm. Luffy felt his fist hit, but as he looked closer through the smoke his skin turned blue as he saw Usopp stumble back with a hand held in front of his stomach. "Sorry!" the pirate yelled, staring down at his own fist in fear, wondering if this power was too much to handle.

"Raaa!" Smoker slammed his fists down again as the smoke was clearing. "Mugiwara, finish this!"

Luffy snapped out of it and sprinted forward into the funnel of smoke. He jumped up and then disappeared by moving fast around his opponent to the other side. Clayton spun with one hand still on the blade of Usopp's weapon. He blocked Luffy's next punch but was thrown out of the smoke cloud by the force of it.

The others all watched as Clayton came tumbling out of the smoke cloud. His face was bloody, and his left shoulder was drenched in blood, with more coming out. The man with darkening skin staggered to his feet and the smoke was all going back into Smoker. Usopp wasn't as hurt as Luffy thought from his attack and he walked on Smoker's right as Luffy landed and panted extremely hard as the steam stopped flowing around him.

"Seems you've gotten a little stronger Straw Hat," Smoker mentioned after seeing Luffy's last attack. The Marine Captain was panting a little from using that much power, but he was nowhere near as tired as Luffy who had to use his new attack a twice now.

_Every time, I use it, it takes so much, energy,_ the pirate captain stumbled forward and then planted his feet as his eyes went wide along with everyone else's.

"It can't be," Sora whispered as Clayton ripped with his right hand. The man tore Usopp's broadsword out of his own shoulder and dropped the bloody weapon on the ground. _I need more POWER!_ In a menacingly low voice, he started laughing, and then screamed in pure agony as his left arm grew three times as large, muscles forming on top of muscles, on top of muscles.

His left shoulder was puffed out huge and his right leg followed suit by buffing out. "The darkness is consuming him!" Donald shouted as the ground ripped open and a group of the blue monkeys started jumping out.

"We have to stop him!" Sora exclaimed and charged forward, swiping with his sword and cutting across two of the monkeys at the same time. He thought his strength was fine at the speed it was increasing, but after witnessing those three men take on Clayton when he could barely land a hit, he knew he needed the experience. The boy with spiky brown hair swiped back and forth and then parried as one of the monkeys tried hitting him.

Usopp was sprinting forward and ran past right as Sora took down two of the Heartless. "Great job Sora, I've got the big guy!" The man rolled forward and grabbed his weapon off the ground in mid-roll.

Suddenly Smoker recognized the long nose on the muscular man's face and he muttered to Luffy who was standing next to him. "Isn't that the scrawny kid with the bandanna? What happened to him?" He had no idea how the kid he met in Alabasta could have gotten this big in that short a time.

"It's been three years for him," Nami said to the Marine as she walked forward. She stared at her friend as he swung his sword only for Clayton to block it with a powerful elbow. The man, or now he could be called a monster, tried spinning and kicking Usopp in the face, but the pirate spun and kicked with his own muscular leg, the two clashing in midair and sending off a shockwave that rippled across the rock surface they were on. The ground shattered beneath them and then the two were gone. Smoker was amazed at how powerful that skinny kid had gotten, and was also getting adjusted to the idea of it being three years for him, but he had to focus.

Luffy and Smoker turned their heads to the left and Nami followed where they looked to see another shockwave that ripped part of the wall off. They turned again and Nami desperately tried keeping up, this time spinning and seeing Usopp with both hands put together in a fist over Clayton's head. The hunter slammed down into the ground and formed another crater after being double punched by the old Straw Hat sharpshooter.

"FIRE!" Sora shouted and the others looked to see all the blue creatures around the boy were gone. The kid was charging at the crater and a fireball shot from his weapon, slamming into the man who was getting to his feet and engulfing him in flames.

_POWER! I HAVE TRUE POWER!_ Clayton started laughing like crazy and ignored the pain as his other arm and leg buffed out beyond their limits and his whole body looked ridiculous. Then his torso buffed out as well to match the rest of him and he finally looked insane as his red pupils grew and his hair burst into flames. "_**RAAARR!**_"

Nami watched as the monster charged at Sora and she screamed for the kid to dodge, but Sora just jumped up in the air and spun in a three sixty. The boy finished his full spin and released his Keyblade, throwing it at the charging hunter who was thrice the size he was originally now. The blade cut through the monster's neck and darkness shot out instead of blood, confirming everyone's thoughts that he was already gone.

Clayton roared again and pulled back a fist to hit the kid, but the Keyblade bounced off a cliff wall and flew back through the back of his neck, landing in the kid's hand. As he screamed, the boy who caught the blade lifted it over his head with both hands and brought it down across his face. He followed up by swiping back and forth across Clayton's body before he landed, then when he hit the ground he bent his knees and shot back up with a one handed uppercut through the hunter's entire body.

The Heartless man was going to lift his left leg to kick the kid as he was descending, but two strong arms wrapped around his leg and lifted him up. Usopp had charged from the back and dropped his sword to grab the man, lifting him off the ground and tossing him up in the air. Luffy saw his chance and calmed his staggered breathing, his face turning determined. The pirate pumped his legs and Nami gasped. Even Smoker knew after seeing the pirate use the technique once; this was a risky ability. _Straw Hat is risking everything here, but why?_

Smoker looked back and saw the woman from the research tent surrounded by scared gorillas. On the other side of the cliff area, the dog guy was sitting on the ground with his shield laying next to him, looking unable to continue. The boy who was attacking Clayton couldn't take him on his own, and this fight was going on for long enough. _He's trying to protect the others? Damn pirates,_ he shook his head and glared at Luffy as steam started rising off the teen's skin.

Luffy vanished to almost everyone there, and he reappeared under where Clayton was dropping down. "Gum Gum," he began, screaming with pain in his voice, and everyone watched as he threw his right arm back and it twisted over and over again. His black Keyblade with a white hilt was still in his hand and he lifted his left palm above him at the man falling down.

Clayton roared and he pulled back his huge dark blue right arm as he was falling. Every man, duck, woman, dog, and gorilla there watched as Luffy screamed and threw his arm forward, "JET KEY RIFLE!" The spinning arm flew towards the dropping enemy faster than Clayton could dodge. The fist slamming into him pushed hard and then the arm started to untwist. The Keyblade spun around and around as it turned into a fan and sliced Clayton over and over again, the muscular Heartless stopping his downward momentum and starting to get lifted up again.

"Followed by..." Luffy shouted as he pulled his arm back and jumped in the air. He flew all the way up to horizontal to Clayton, "JET WHIP!" He spun and his right leg flew out and slammed into the man, knocking him back into the cliff that started to crumble. Clayton dropped out of the air and the cliff dropped with him, huge pieces of it falling on the man as he finally hit the ground.

A dust cloud lifted up from the rubble, but Luffy wasn't finished yet. As he was descending, he could feel his Gear Second state going away and he threw both of his arms behind him as high as he could up in the air. "Gum Gum," he began and his body was still steaming. He was facing the ground and he saw an arm reach up through a few pieces of rock and clench a fist. "JET KEY BAZOOKA!" He threw both arms down hard with his Keyblade held horizontal in his hands.

Both hands slammed down into the rocks and shattered them, and then he felt them pressing down against skin beneath. It didn't feel like normal skin, but like he was punching one of those Heartless monsters. The amount of force behind his attack, along with the fact that he had the Keyblade right in the middle of it, started pushing farther and farther down into Clayton. Finally the attack pushed all the way through as the blade cut deep, almost slicing the monster in half down the middle.

Luffy finally dropped out of his state and his skin turned back to its normal color. He fell out of the air and tried to land, but his body wasn't listening to him and he just landed on his back. He coughed up some blood and tried to lift his head to see if his opponent was dead, but even that small action was too much for him.

"Luffy!" Sora shouted and ran over to his friend.

Usopp looked over towards the skinny teenager with messy black hair and was glad to see he wasn't dead. _That new technique of his is dangerous,_ he knew he had to talk to him about it later, but first... He turned towards Nami who was also jogging towards Luffy. He ran towards her and asked, "Are you alright?" He was busy fighting Clayton for most of the time, and the man had hit him a few times, so he wasn't able to focus on the weaker people who he was worried about.

"Of course," she stated as they kept running towards Luffy. They heard something coming from the left and skidded to a stop, slowly turning their heads towards the cloud of dust Luffy knocked up with his bazooka. "It can't be," she whispered and they heard a low moan from inside the cloud.

Smoker was walking straight towards the cloud and it cleared around him as he stepped in and looked down at the man lying there. Clayton was writhing around on the ground, his muscles popping and growing, but the man looked like he was in so much pain. "That's what the darkness did to him?" Goofy whispered as he and Donald looked over as well. The duck just quacked nervously as they watched the man writhe around a few more times before slowing down and stopping.

Clayton couldn't handle the amount of power he was given in the first place, but it only kept growing inside him. Still, he wasn't able to stand up to all of Luffy, Smoker, Usopp, and even Sora's attacks in the end. He shook once more and his black eyes turned back to normal for a second to stare into Smoker's eyes. "Help-" he choked out and then his eyes rolled back as his chest ripped open. A bright white light surrounded him and two red hearts started pulling out of his chest. They spiraled around each other up in the air, and then vanished.

A dark pit formed beneath Clayton and started to swallow him up. Smoker stared at the man until the last of him was devoured by the darkness, and then he turned around. When he turned, he made eye contact with the tan-skinned pirate with the long nose.

Usopp was already staring his direction while Nami tried to treat Luffy with Sora's help. Donald and Goofy ran over to the two of them as well, but Usopp said, "Guys," and the Disney creatures looked up to see who was staring at them.

Smoker's face was bloody and he looked worse fo the wear, but that was up against a Heartless who took them all on. This was a powerful opponent, if he was an opponent.

"You," the Marine pointed at Usopp who had his broadsword back in his right hand, leaning over his right shoulder. Usopp had some blood of his own on his face, but he looked better than the Captain did.

Luffy listened to Smoker, but he couldn't look up to see the man. He coughed and muttered, "I can't move." _So this is what happens when I use Gear Second too many times in a row. This stinks..._ Luffy's eyes closed and he fell unconscious.

Smoker continued, "She said it's been three years for you. What did she mean?"

"Exactly that," Usopp responded while keeping eye contact with Smoker. He realized he might not have to fight this man if he chose his words right and he kept talking, "Where do you think we are?" Smoker didn't have an answer for the muscular man who just kept on going, feeling empowered by the Marine's silence. Usopp continued, "We're not on our world anymore. Our world no longer exists, it was lost to the Heartless."

"Oi!" Donald exclaimed and ran up to Usopp, kicking him in the shins. "That's top secret! You can't go around telling people that!"

Smoker looked at the duck, and besides a Devil Fruit, he couldn't see the creature being able to exist in the world he knew. _The woman at that camp mentioned that she didn't know what the World Government was..._ Usopp was still talking and interrupted the older man's thoughts. "Darkness is spreading across all the worlds," he didn't really know what he was talking about, but he had a good idea about it after the last few worlds they'd visited. "Every world I've been to in my three years after being sucked up into that black hole, they were all full of Heartless."

"Those blue creatures?" Smoker asked, wondering if he was referring to those monkeys who destroyed his crew.

"Yes, but there are many types," Usopp continued and looked over to the rubbled next to Smoker. "He became a Heartless the second he let the darkness consume his soul."

"That's ridiculous," Smoker argued. "There can't be other worlds. I'm arresting Mugiwara and everyone else here who says they're a pirate."

"There are other worlds!" Sora shouted at the guy who looked back at him. Sora started walking forward and he yelled, "You didn't see it!" The others looked his direction as the kid's voice got quieter. "When I was being pulled into the darkness, I looked down and saw the island I grew up on. It was tearing to pieces. Our world, it doesn't exist anymore, but we're going to change that!"

Smoker tilted his head, confused at everything going on, but most of all by that last statement. He somewhat remembered the ocean he was sailing on fall into a giant pit of darkness, but got distracted again by the boy shouting at him. Sora lifted his right hand and the Keyblade formed on it. Donald tried to yell at him to stop talking, but Goofy held back his friend. The knight realized that having this man as their friend would be a lot better than having him as their enemy. "The Keyblade," the boy stated and Smoker remembered seeing one in Straw Hat's hand as well. "Is the only way to save the planets from the darkness. It's the only way to bring back our world," Sora thought about all his friends from Destiny Islands who were lost and he continued in a positive voice, "and to bring back everyone on it!"

The Marine looked around and saw everyone looking at him, waiting to see what he would do. _All my men are, they're gone. There's no reason for me to still be here if this really is another world._ "Where are the other Straw Hats?" Smoker asked the woman and the man with the long nose.

"Everyone else got sucked into the darkness too," Nami told the Captain who was listening to them instead of attacking for once. "We're trying to save them."

"Tashigi," the man started and then stopped himself. Everyone looked at him and he frowned at them. "If one of my soldiers was pulled through, do you think she would be..."

"We were all sent to different worlds," Usopp told the man. "I was there for three years in what was only a short time for the rest of you. There's a chance she's out there on a different world..."

"And we'll find her and bring her to you!" Donald finished as he stepped forward. "The King ordered us to find the Keybearers and save the worlds, but we can't take every single-"

"I'm coming," Smoker said and glared at the duck.

"Of course sir!" Donald saluted the man and had a sweatdrop coming down the side of his face. Goofy saluted as well and Usopp let out a breath of relief.

"Don't think that means," Smoker started back up and the others all looked at him, "that when this is over, I won't be arresting you pirates."

"We're about to save the universe!" Nami snapped and spun her head to the Marine who was now the one with a bead of sweat dripping down his face. "Give us a break already!"

"We don't know how long it will be before we can save our friends," Usopp told the other man and he started walking towards him. "But until we do," he got right in front of Smoker and held out his right hand that the Marine stared at hesitantly. "Truce?"

The white haired man frowned and stared straight into Usopp's eyes as the pirate stared back at him. Usopp saw the hesitation and began in a cockier voice, "It's this, or we could leave you here in the gorilla jungle when we get back on our ship."

"Your ship can travel between worlds?" Smoker asked skeptically, but the long-nosed pirate nodded at him and he grunted. _Everyone,_ he thought about all the men on his ship, _I will avenge you. Aokigi, I'm following my own sense of justice on this one. I'll have to work with pirates to bring justice, but I can bear the shame. Tashigi... I'm coming to get you back._ "Truce," he held out his hand and clenched the pirate's, only for Usopp to clench back harder.

The pirate smiled at his new Logia ally and was glad he was on their side this time. As the two of them lowered their hands, the gorillas seemed to know that there was no chance of further fighting and they came out of hiding.

Sora used Cure on Luffy now that he didn't feel as exhausted, but although Luffy's external scrapes and bruises went away, his raspy breathing from using his new power too much wasn't stopping. "It's not working," the kid with spiky brown hair whispered as he stared at the unconscious pirate.

"It's okay Sora," Nami said and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. He looked up at her and she was smiling fondly at her captain, "He can handle it. He always does."

Kerchak walked all the way to the large group of humans and other creatures. Tarzan looked at the gorilla who was like a father to him, and they both nodded at each other. Kerchak seemed to trust these people enough and he reached down and grabbed Sora, throwing the kid a hundred feet up in the air and then doing the same for Donald and Goofy.

Usopp grabbed Luffy and tossed him over his shoulder, then grabbed Nami the same way. Kerchak reached as if he were trying to throw them the same way, but Usopp shook his head at him, "I've got this." He jumped up after the other three to follow where Kerchak was sending them.

Tarzan climbed up the vines on a wall and ran over to where Sora dropped first followed by the two Disney creatures. All three of them landed on their butts or faces, while Usopp landed on his feet. Smoker turned his lower body to smoke and flew up there after them, turning his smoke back to legs after arriving up there.

"Whoa," Nami whispered as Usopp put her down. She stared around at the beautiful lake with waterfalls pouring into it and it was amazing. The small gorilla named Terk climbed up the wall with Jane on its back and she was amazed as well.

All of them looked around for a moment in awe, and then Tarzan spoke up. "Tarzan. Home." He led them over to a cave and they all followed him inside, Usopp still carrying Luffy on his shoulder as the captain began to snore.

They didn't have very far to go before they saw a glowing blue light on one of the trees in front of them, still inside the cave. "What is that?" Smoker asked and no one had an answer for him this time as Tarzan walked straight up to the light with Sora walking next to him.

"Ee, oo, oo oo ah," Tarzan said. This was a phrase he was saying very often, and no one understood what it was he was really saying.

"This is your home?" Sora asked and looked around, not seeing Riku anywhere. "But that means..."

Tarzan held up a hand for them all to be quiet and he lifted the hand to his ear. Once they were all silent, Goofy gasped as he realized what the noise he was hearing was. Nami whispered, "It's the waterfalls. They're echoing all the way here."

"Ee, oo, oo oo ah," Tarzan repeated again. "Friends there. See friends."

Jane walked up from the back of the group and smiled, "Oh, now I've got it. Ee, oo, oo oo ah, means heart. Friends in our hearts."

"Heart," Tarzan repeated, confirming her theory.

Sora looked disappointed and tilted his head down, "Oh, so that's what it meant."

Usopp whispered into their newest group member's ear since Smoker looked confused. "It isn't just you and us who have people we need to find scattered through the worlds." Smoker looked down at the child in front who talked about his entire world ripping apart. "He's looking for his friends who were taken just like ours."

Usopp stopped whispering since Tarzan began talking. "Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends."

Donald and Sora both realized something at the same time. Neither of them wanted to lose the friendship they had and the fight wasn't worth it. The boy turned as Donald was turning to him and Sora apologized, "I'm sorry Donald."

"I'm sorry too," the duck in the blue hat replied sincerely.

"Hyuck! All for one and one for all right?!" Goofy wrapped his arms around both of the smaller guys and pulled them in for a hug.

"Right!" Usopp and Nami called out with the rest of their little group, with the exception of Smoker who just stared at them in silence, already regretting his decision to follow these children.

The blue light faded a little and everyone was able to see the beautiful blue butterflies that were glowing blue and lighting up the cavern. Sora stepped forward and as the butterflies scattered, he saw what he was expecting, an open Keyhole in the tree trunk.

Sora jumped back and his weapon appeared in his hands. He spun it around before pointing it at the Keyhole. A thin beam of white light shot off of his weapon and into the hole on the trunk. "What was that?" Smoker asked as a loud locking clunk was heard.

"Our work here is done," Sora responded and his Keyblade vanished into thin air.

"A gummi!" Donald exclaimed as a small piece fell off of the tree. This time Smoker wasn't even going to bother asking, he figured he'd find out soon enough.

"But it's sure not the King's," Goofy said, disappointed.

As Donald picked it up, he felt soft fur rub up against him and he turned in surprise to see Terk there. It was the same gorilla he came face to face with when he first got to this world. Jane giggled from behind them, "I think someone has a new admirer."

"Huh?" Donald exclaimed with a flustered expression and jumped back. He waved his arms in front of himself and shouted, "No no no no! Daisy would kill me!" Everyone started laughing as they assumed Daisy was his girlfriend and even Smoker cracked a smile before catching himself and frowning deeply.

_I have to find Tashigi, then, then..._ he looked around at the group around him. _Is this really the only hope we have of setting everything straight? _He shook his head, _The fate of the universe, in the hands of pirates._

* * *

"What drew the Heartless to that world?" Jafar asked from his seat around the table. Their leader was in the center of the room and she had just showed them the battle between the Keybearers and Clayton.

"The hunter lured them there," Maleficent responded to them all. "It was his lust for power that was the bait. But it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good."

"Oohahaha, yeah! He got chomped instead!" An annoying voice shouted from the other side of the room. Oogie Boogie leaned back in his seat smiling like a madman.

The man in the black and red cape walked forward towards the center table where Maleficent was standing. Jafar looked down at the table and taunted, "A weak-hearted fool like him stood no chance against the Heartless. But that boy is a problem. He found one of the Keyholes."

Sora's image appeared on the table in a green light with a few members of his group walking around him. The hologram showed the people in the dark room the members of the Keyblade weilder's party walking along without a care in the world. Maleficent laughed, "No matter. It will take him ages to find the rest. Besides," she continued, "he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan."

"Yes," Jafar implored, "the princesses."

"They are falling into our hands one by one," the woman with green skin continued with a smirk. "Speaking of which," she turned to the other side of the room where a young girl with blonde hair and a blue dress was looking around frantically at all the scary figures around her. Alice was terrified, and the witch turned her direction, making her only more scared.

"I just want to go home!" she exclaimed as the room became black. "No!" she screamed.

* * *

"Is everyone ready?" Nami asked and looked around at their group gathered back inside Jane's tent. No one had any objections so she nodded, "Then it's time for us to get going. Usopp, you've got Luffy?"

"Yep," the muscular man responded. He still didn't have a shirt on, which wasn't much of a problem considering how hot the jungle was. Plus, he blended it well with Tarzan who was only a few feet away from him.

"So where is your ship anyway?" Jane asked.

Donald scratched the back of his head, "It's... not far," he responded. Smoker wanted to see this strange Gummi Ship they kept mentioning as well, and was ready to go for a while now. After being the Captain of his own ship, it was annoying not being the one who decided when they left.

Tarzan made eye contact with Sora and stated, "Tarzan, Sora, friends."

Sora nodded his head, "Yeah, friends." It didn't matter that he was leaving, they would still be friends, in their hearts. He patted his chest once to make sure the jungle man understood.

The group left the tent and walked through the woods again, this time without running into any Heartless. "Now that the, Keyhole," Smoker said reluctantly, "is closed, are the Heartless gone too?" As he finished, two blue monkeys formed in front of them and Sora called down Thunder twice to finish them both quickly.

"No," Goofy told the man who was still getting used to talking to a dog, person, thing. "But there sure are less of them now, hyuck," the King's captain of the guard kept walking and Smoker shook his head at the craziness of all this.

"So where are we going now?" Sora asked as he pushed aside another bush and found where Donald was leading them. Smoker stared wide-eyed at the ship and looked around, not seeing any water near them. He opened his mouth to ask, but figured he wouldn't like the answer anyway so he just shut his mouth again and decided he'd find out in a second.

"Well," Nami started. "We should get that Gummi to Cid. He'll add it to our ship and he said a new path would open up once he did. Then we'll be able to get to the next world and keep looking for our nakama."

"We also need him to make the ship a lot bigger," Usopp added and everyone agreed on that point. Donald grumbled angrily about how they were breaking the rules but everyone else ignored him and after looking at the ship again, they wondered how they had been fitting the people they already had.

"At least the ride will be smoother with Luffy unconscious," Sora offered and the rest of them nodded their heads stoically. Not having to worry about Luffy pressing all the buttons and running around the interior of the ship was a plus.

"Now maybe I can finally get some sleep," Nami said as she walked over and got inside the hatch of the ship.

"I call driving," Usopp said and then he and Donald started arguing as they got in the front two seats. The pirate with the long nose had to pause to put Luffy down so he didn't get the driver's seat and he was grumbling about it as Donald laughed at him. Goofy chuckled and followed them inside leaving only Smoker outside the ship.

"What are you waiting for?" Sora asked already halfway into the cockpit. He reached his hand outside the ship for the man with white hair. "Whoever this girl you're looking for is, she's probably waiting for you right now." Smoker's eyes went wide and Sora continued, "I know Kairi is waiting for me, and I want to get to her as soon as I can. So let's go!"

Smoker reached up his hand, and the oddly strong fourteen year old with the weapon/key that could save the universe, pulled him into their magical ship.

"Alright! Everyone hold on!" Donald called out and turned on the ship. Everyone was buckling in, but Luffy was just lying behind the back seat with Smoker sitting on the floor next to him holding him down. What happened next shocked the Marine who thought nothing else would be able to. The ship lifted off the ground and shot up in the air, all the way until they flew up to space and around the dark void.

"This is..." the Captain remembered when his warship fell off the side of the Earth. This was exactly what his crew saw floating around in the darkness. Huge chunks of land floated off in space around them, obstacles hovered in their path and the duck guy swerved around to avoid them while also pulling the triggers on the joysticks and shooting down enemy ships flying at them.

"This is going to be a long trip," Usopp told Nami who was sitting behind him. They had to go all the way past the arena he spent three years at to get to Traverse Town. He kind of wanted to stop there, already missing Phil and Hercules, but he had to put saving his old comrades first. "You can go to sleep," he told the orange haired woman next to him.

She nodded at him and was going to say something, but all that came out was a loud yawn as she stretched her arms above her head. "Actually, everyone should get some sleep," Usopp told the rest of the ship's crew. Donald wasn't allowed since he was driving, but the rest of them could. "We don't know what's waiting for us ahead, but the Heartless are everywhere. We need to be well-rested to keep fighting them."

"Gawrsh, alright," Goofy replied and closed his eyes, instantly snoring. Sora jumped at how easy it was for the dog and then started laughing at Goofy's silliness.

"Ok then," Sora said. "I can't wait to show Leon how much stronger I've gotten," the boy stated and put his arms behind his head in his seat. He began resting his eyes and soon passed out like the others.

"You can sleep too," Usopp told Smoker after an hour of flying in silence. He'd look back occasionally and see the Marine captain staring around in space or down at Luffy or at the rest of the crew. Smoker opened his mouth to argue but Usopp already knew what he would say and taunted him, "'_I can't trust pirates!'_" He mocked in a low tone that didn't sound much like Smoker and made the Navy officer snarl. "I know you think we're going to attack you in your sleep, but we don't really want to. Luffy would never let us first of all..."

Smoker remembered back in Alabasta when Roronoa Zoro saved him from drowning. He asked the man why, and the swordsman responded by saying it was Luffy's orders. Usopp continued, "And second of all, you are the least of my worries. I don't want to do anything to you, except to help you find the person you're looking for. What use would attacking you be when we have the same enemies? The Heartless are destroying worlds, plural. The conflict between you and pirates in our own world doesn't matter anymore, it's trivial compared to the big picture."

The Marine started lowering his guard and he looked back around the cockpit at the peaceful group lying around him, most of them sleeping with smiles on their faces. They didn't look like what he'd call evil. "Besides," Usopp whispered and looked away and out the front windshield, "over the last few years I gave up the label of a pirate. I was a hero," he smiled fondly remembering the good times with Herc, helping the skinny boy become a hero, helping him train, and find his place in the world. "And a hero would never let something happen to a man while he was sleeping."

Usopp didn't look back behind him, but he knew Smoker was still awake. The older man was thinking hard about what the pirate was saying, and he was right, their issues were trivial compared to what was going on now. _And he's right, I won't be saving anyone if I'm falling asleep on the battlefield. This could be a fatal mistake,_ his eyes started to close, _I could be getting myself killed here._ No matter how much logic he tried to use to convince himself that it was wrong, his heart told him there was no danger, and that's what compelled him to fall asleep in the end.

* * *

**A/N Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter cuz I know I did! This was pretty awesome and now we have Smoker traveling with the crew which could be a good thing, or not... Anyway, hope y'all had a good read and I promise the next chapter will be out sooner than the 8 month wait of last time! **


	12. Chapter 12

"You know it's rude asking a person about their past," the tall woman with long brown hair stated coldly and then turned her back to the man trying to talk to her. She walked into the restaurant next to the square of Traverse Town's First District.

Smoker growled at the response but then calmed himself. _If this place is just somewhere that people who got scattered landed, Tashigi might be somewhere here. I have to keep looking._

He wandered off in a different direction to keep looking around, while the rest of the group were off doing other things. Usopp was watching a still knocked out Luffy back at the ship, while Nami went to get Cid to help them make adjustments to their Gummi vehicle.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were off in the Second District fighting Heartless left and right. "Did you guys see that last fight?!" Sora shouted as Donald got knocked back and muttered that he was exhausted. "We got creamed!" the kid got knocked back himself, but he clenched his left hand on the cement and dragged himself up to his feet. "I don't care how strong they are," he began and Goofy stood up, standing next to him on the right. "Or how far ahead of us they are," he growled and stared at the two fat Heartless surrounded by the floating green ones that were healing them as soon as Sora got any damage on them. Donald got up and stood next to Sora on the left with a scowl of his own on his bill now. "We won't fall behind anymore!"

The three of them kept duking it out with the seemingly endless supply of Heartless in the Second District. They defeated all the monsters in the main plaza, but then they went through the hotel and had to fight their way through every room until they busted out the back door and into the alleyway.

"Leon wasn't in there," Goofy said obviously. Both of the others were already thinking it and they looked around for where they could find the older teen with the long sword. "What about over there?" he pointed over at a gate in the sewer that led somewhere else.

"I mean, we've already tried everywhere else," Sora said. "I guess we could give it a shot." The three of them ran through the back alley and defeated the magic red, blue, and yellow floating Heartless that tried attacking them. Sora started to realize that magic was the best attack on these ones, but if he used the magic that matched its color, he only gave it more health. He was getting more accurate with his attacks as he focused solely on one, or solely on missing one enemy.

The three of them jumped into the waterway and then charged at the metal bars. Donald hit first, but they didn't break, so Sora slammed into his back. However, they didn't break then either, so Goofy crashed into both of them and finally the bars knocked down and the three of them fell into the dark waterway. The three of them swam into the tunnel and found Leon and the gang at the end of it.

As Sora got out of the water and talked to Leon about the Keyholes they found, Luffy was coming around back in the outskirts of the First District where they parked their Gummi Ship. The pirate stood up slowly and winced a little as he looked around. "Hey Luffy," a voice said and he spun to see Usopp sitting next to him cross-legged.

"Usopp," Luffy smiled at the man who he was still having trouble recognizing. The pirate looked around and he saw the sign above the First District's doors that he had yet to enter since they were parked outside. "Traverse Town? Aww, we left the jungle," he frowned and pouted in a sitting position just like Usopp's.

"Haha, don't worry, we said goodbye to Tarzan and Jane for you," Usopp said.

"What about the gorillas?!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Umm," Usopp scratched his chin. The man with the long nose was wearing a white t-shirt and had on long black pants. "Sorry, but it wasn't goodbye forever," Usopp quickly said, "we can visit them on the ship whenever we want."

"Well I want to now," Luffy said and crossed his arms.

"Baka," Luffy turned just in time for the wrench Nami threw to hit him in the face. He flew backwards and his head slammed into the ground as Nami jumped down off the ship. She was wearing a blue tank top and short red shorts, and she had to wipe her face of some sweat after working on the ship for a while. "Shouldn't we be looking places we haven't already checked for the rest of our crew?"

"Oh yeah," Luffy said and jumped up to his feet, forgetting about the red welt he had where the wrench hit him.

"Anyway, you're turn again Usopp. You're better at this than I am anyway. Cid could use some help up there," as Nami was talking, Luffy looked up at the ship and his eyes went wide and starry. Huge new additions were already added to it and now they were working on adding the navigation Gummi they found in the Deep Jungle.

"Whoa! What happened?! It's so, so big!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Well duh," Usopp said as he was climbing. "We needed space for all our new... members..." he stopped and looked at Nami who looked back at him nervously. "You've got this one," Usopp said quickly and then dropped into the hatch and closed it behind him to start working on adding the new destinations to their Gummi Ship's navigation system.

"What'd he mean by new members?" Luffy asked and tilted his head to the side and Nami tried to avoid eye contact.

The girl muttered a curse at Usopp under her breath and then turned back to her captain. "Well," she began and twiddled her fingers together. "We might have, brought along, someone from the Deep Jungle." Luffy was about to exclaim how happy he was that Tarzan was there, but he remembered that Usopp told him he said goodbye to Tarzan and Jane for him.

"Who?" the pirate captain asked.

Nami looked up; she didn't want to miss Luffy's reaction on this one. "Smoker."

She was expecting panic, or him to shout something, but instead Luffy started smiling. "Shishishi, Smoky's coming? Great!"

"Be more worried!" Nami punched him on top of the head. She started huffing and puffing and then blew on her fist. "Actually, I don't think you have to be. He might be a Marine, but there is no more Navy, or World Government. At least until we get everything back the way it was, he's on our side."

Luffy stood back up with a red bump on his head and he didn't know what to say. He wanted to say, 'Yippee!' but he felt like Nami would hit him again, so he nodded instead. "Well, where is he?" the pirate asked, feeling it was a safe question.

Nami looked back at the doorway and said, "He's in town, looking for his Sergeant, Tashigi. She got sucked into the darkness like everyone else..." Nami sounded depressed and she looked down at the floor towards the end of her speech.

"Nami," Luffy whispered and the woman looked up to see Luffy planting his hat on top of his head. "We'll get everyone back. Chopper, Robin, Sanji, Zoro," Nami winced but Luffy didn't notice it and continued, "Riku and Kairi too." The navigator smiled softly and Luffy felt like he did a good job. The pirate didn't notice as he turned away from the orange haired girl, but there was a tear in her left eye about to drop down. _It's not just our crew Luffy. What happened to Coco Village? Nojiko? Gen? Everyone... Zoro,_ thinking of everyone she missed was making her sadder but she got distracted from her thoughts by the silly captain in front of her.

"Yosh!" Luffy jumped up in the air and then grabbed his chest on his way down. "Oww," he moaned and sat back down, "that's weird, I didn't think it would still hurt." He frowned and crossed his arms, deep in thought about how to limit the usage of his new powers, since changing into Gear Third also had the side effect of turning him tiny, which could be devastating during a fight.

"Well," Nami muttered as she sat down next to her captain and rested her arms behind her head, "we still don't know where they are, so don't get too excited. It could be a while before we find any of them."

"No," Luffy stated and the navigator next to him looked up in surprise. "I'll find them soon." He looked up at the sky, "Hear that guys? I'm coming for you."

Nami smiled at the teen in the straw hat and couldn't stop herself from giggling. She put her hand over her mouth to stop, but she couldn't do it and started laughing out loud. _Luffy, this is exactly why I joined your crew,_ she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and looked up at the sky too. _We'll get everyone back, even you Zoro._

* * *

"There's a magician upstairs?" Donald shouted at Aerith who mentioned something a second before to him.

"There's a Keyhole on this world too?!" Sora exclaimed at Leon who nodded and continued to explain how every world had a Keyhole on it, and they had to find the one on this world too.

"Gawrsh," Goofy turned to his two friends, "where should we go first?"

"Sora has the Keyblade," Donald started and they both looked to the kid to see what he wanted to do.

The kid with spiky brown hair clenched his right fist. "I want to go to the Keyhole as soon as possible to save this world from falling into darkness, but I need to get stronger. The boss here might be even stronger than Clayton was."

"But didn't we beat the boss already?" Goofy asked while scratching his head.

"I thought we did," Leon agreed with the dog, "but if so, there would be much less Heartless on this world than we're seeing. Instead, the number keeps going up. I think there must still be a boss somewhere in one of the districts."

"That settles it then!" Sora exclaimed and looked back at his friends. "First we'll go to this Merlin guy's house, then we'll head after the boss. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" Donald and Goofy shouted. The three of them walked off towards the magical staircase behind Aerith that kept lifting up in the air to some different room. The group appeared in the middle of an empty room and looked around, wondering if someone actually lived there with the resistance's secret base in the basement.

"Hello?" Sora cupped his mouth and called out.

All of a sudden the door opened and an old man in a blue robe with a much pointier blue hat than Donald walked in. The old guy had a long white beard and mustache, along with a pair of glasses that perfected the old magician look. Sora sweatdropped, _He's definitely a magician alright._ "Are you Merlin?" Goofy asked.

"Why yes!" The old man dropped a suitcase and held up a long wand. He started waving it around in the air and huge pieces of furniture that shouldn't have been able to fit inside the bag escaped and started dancing around and setting themselves up around the room. Merlin kept doing this until his entire house was furnished and the group of travelers ooed and ahhed at the magic. "Now what can I do for you boys?"

Sora explained how they were trying to save the worlds from the Heartless and Merlin exclaimed, "So you're the Keybearer. I heard there were two of you?" He looked at the other two creatures but Donald and Goofy shook their heads.

"Yeah, but he's not here right now," Sora said. _I wonder if Luffy's woken up yet?_

"Well that's quite alright," the old man quipped. "If you would like to practice your magic, I have a training room upstairs where your mana, that is your magical energy, will never be depleted." Sora perked up at this and asked to go train there.

Donald, Sora, and Goofy jumped on another magical staircase thing that lifted up in the air and brought them to the second floor. Merlin rose with them and he shook his wand again, this time bringing the upstairs furniture to life and made it attack them. Goofy practiced with his shield too and the three of them fought against bookshelves and coffee tables until the furniture broke apart. Then, Merlin shook his wand and the pieces were put back together as strong as before, making the three of them start back over.

It was a few hours before Donald and Goofy were finally too exhausted and lay with their backs up against the back wall. The two of them were panting hard and couldn't continue, but they kept watching in amazement as Sora kept fighting all the enemies on his own.

"Would you like to take a break too my boy?" Merlin asked, sweat coming down the sides of his own face after watching this kid destroy a bookshelf a few hundred times in a row without pause. "No one will think less of you if..."

"No!" Sora shouted and jumped up, calling down thunder that slammed down into his enemy and shattered it. "I have to get stronger, this won't be enough to stop the Heartless." His mind flashed for a second to the Marine back in the Deep Jungle, Yussaf. If only he'd been stronger, then maybe he could have saved him.

"But you've already upgraded your Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder magic!" Merlin exclaimed. "At the magical level you're at now, you can use Fira, Blizzara, and Thundara!"

Sora slowed down for a second and looked at his Keyblade. He had been noticing that his magic was getting stronger. Each of his attacks were larger, with a bigger fireball, more ice, or an extra lightning bolt or two. "I know I'm getting stronger," he said quietly, but then the image of Luffy covered in steam appeared in his mind and he looked up at the old magician, "but it's still not enough." The kid sighed, finally putting his hands on his knees and the angry furniture stopped dancing around the room and fell silent.

Merlin lowered his wand and scratched his long white beard with his other hand. "There is, one other thing I can teach you..."

Sora's head snapped up and looked at the reluctant look on the old man's face, "But I don't know if you'll be able to handle it," the magician continued.

"I can!" Sora shouted and sprinted forward, suddenly losing all the fatigue he had felt. Donald and Goofy sighed and leaned back, thinking they might finally be moving on and now seeing that they were going to be stuck here for a while longer.

Merlin looked the boy up and down a few times and then nodded. "Alright then, if you're sure you can take it. But I must first warn you of the risks..."

"Please," Sora begged and fell to his knees with his hands together. "Just teach me the power! We need to find the Keyhole on this world before it gets sucked into darkness too. Warnings come later!"

"Alright alright, sheesh," Merlin said, though he smiled at the boy's enthusiasm. "With this power," he waved his arms around in the air and a white light glowed from his wand. "One that I have not perfected myself, one that my old friend Yen Sid created," the man brought down his arms and the light engulfed Sora, lifting the boy off the ground as Sora closed his eyes.

Donald and Goofy shot up and went wide-eyed as Sora's arms and legs were pulled backwards with his torso and head pushed forwards towards the center of the light. Sora opened his eyes fast and his whole body felt tingly. "You will become stronger than you could imagine. This is, Drive form."

The light went away and Sora dropped to the ground, his clothes all turned red. "Whoa," Donald, Goofy, and Sora all gawked at the same time while they looked at Sora's new attire. The boy stopped looking at his clothes as he felt something in both of his hands. He looked at his right and saw his normal Keyblade with the yellow hilt and the silver blade, then he looked to his left hand and gasped.

"When did you get another Keyblade?" Goofy asked the boy who couldn't give him an answer. **"Jungle King,"** a voice whispered in his ear and he held up his left hand, repeating the name for the others to hear.

"I think I must've gotten it when I closed the Keyhole in the Deep Jungle." Sora said and admired his new weapon. It had a purple hilt with two silver spikes coming out of it, and the grip Sora held onto was brownish orange. The blade was silver like his other Keyblade, but the actual Key part was split into four different long prongs. _It has a farther reach than the first one._

"Why don't you try it out?" Merlin asked, wanting to see what the power he bestowed could do. "It's the first time I've seen this magic in action, so I'm sending everything at you at once." He raised his wand and all the furniture in the room started shaking at the same time.

As all of the wooden creatures leapt at Sora, the boy lifted his head up and kicked off the ground. He soared at the bookshelf in front of him faster than he could've imagined. All three of the others in the room stared in awe as Sora did a seven twenty spin, cutting both blades across the shelf twice each. The wood shattered and blasted across the room as the boy backflipped and kept backflipping three more times with his Keyblades stuck out around him.

He looked like a spinning top as he ripped his blades through the chairs beneath him and then landed. Merlin was in awe at how amazing this strength was and he decided to test it, "This will be harder," he warned and then waved his wand. All the shattered pieces along with the other pieces of furniture started pulling together and created one huge bookshelf/table/cabinet monster.

"ROOARRR!" it yelled and they'd never seen a scarier piece of decoration.

Sora jumped forward at it and started slashing with his blades. His combo got to five, then six, then seven, and he kept going as he rose higher and higher up the creature, slashing it over and over again. He was so focused on his strength, that he forgot to dodge as an armchair,punched him away from the front of the monster and into the wall.

Pieces of the wooden monster were falling all over the place, but it started charging towards Sora on its footrests. The boy smirked, "If my strength is this strong, then my magic must be," he lifted up his right Keyblade and yelled, "Thundara!" Nothing happened.

A footrest kicked him up in the air and then a cabinet being used as a right arm slammed into the boy and knocked him down into the floor. "Ohh my head," he rubbed it as he got back to his feet. "What happened, why can't I use my magic?"

"I would have told you, but you didn't want any warnings," Merlin called over to the boy from the corner he was hiding in with Donald and Goofy. "In this specific Drive form, called Valor Form, you can't use any magic. It's the only one I knew how to teach, but you'll learn other Drive forms on your travels! Now look out!"

"Huh?" Sora looked up and saw the armchair coming down at him again. "Not this time," he jumped up and landed on top of the wooden arm, running up it while dragging both Keyblades across either side of his legs, tearing the arm off at the shoulder with a big spin. He slashed over and over and dodged the cabinet arm as it flew at him, turning and crossing both of his Keyblades across it and cutting it in half.

He started falling out of the air, but he had time for one more attack and twisted his right leg behind him, turning his whole body while he wound up with his arms. "Take, this!" he spun his arms and twisted his whole body, sending visible slashes off the ends of his weapons that spun rapidly and tore at the enemy until it was just a pile of scraps on the floor.

Sora dropped to the ground, and as he did, his clothes turned back to normal. "Looks like the time limit has run out," Merlin said as he walked forward. "You must remember there will always be a time limit for how long you can use each Drive Form. The more you defeat enemies while not in the form, the quicker your Drive gauge will increase and when it's full, you'll know. That's when you'll be able to utilize this power again."

"But if you're not there Merlin, how do I activate it." Sora asked.

"That one's simple," the old man said. "For Valor Form, just think hard about what gives you strength and courage. What drives you to push your physical body to its limits and face challenges that seem impossible to others!"

"With this, nothing will be able to stop me," the boy clenched his right hand and the Keyblades had both disappeared when the form ran out of time. "Donald, Goofy," he called out and his two friends ran over to him, "let's go beat that monster!"

"Right!" Goofy shouted!

"Wawawa! We'll beat it for sure!" Donald quacked and the three of them dropped into the hole back to the first floor.

"Wait!" Merlin called after them.

"Oh yeah," Sora turned back as they hit the side door to Merlin's house. "Thanks for all your help Merlin!"

"You're very welcome," the magician said and scratched his beard proudly to have been a teacher for such a promising young lad. "Oh wait," he called down, remembering what he actually wanted to tell the boy. "I have to warn you about using the form too many times in a row..." the old man sighed, "he's already gone."

Sora was outside, jumping across the rocks in the huge dark room. Merlin's house was on an island in the middle, but there was a trail of rocks leading to the exit on the other side. Donald and Goofy kept jumping along with him, but Sora was smiling wide as he kept going. _This is awesome! I can't wait to show off my skills to Luffy, Usopp, and Nami!_

The boy pushed open the door and ran into the Third District. Enemies started forming all around him and he closed his eyes, imagining Riku and Kairi, his determination to get to them and save the world no matter what the cost. When he opened his eyes, the Heartless were right in front of him rearing up for an attack, but he still wasn't in his Valor form.

"Sora! Remember what Merlin said?" Goofy asked as he charged in front of the Keybearer and lifted the shield to protect the off guard child. "You can't use it again until you've fought a bunch of enemies outside of the form. Hiyuk," Goofy pushed back the enemies and they sat there dazed for a second from the dog person's strength.

"That's right!" Donald shouted and called down a Thundara of his own that destroyed the dazed enemies. He didn't practice for as long as Sora, but he was already a trained magician long before going on this journey; it wasn't as hard for him to pick up on the magic techniques.

"Sorry," Sora scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I'll try to remember that next time."

The three of them started running across the room again, when three more Heartless appeared in front of them. "More?!" Sora exclaimed, still tired from all his training. Suddenly, all three creatures exploded in puff's of black smoke and the Sora's eyes turned huge as he saw the person standing behind the creatures.

"There you are. What's going on?" Riku asked with a grin.

Sora stared at the muscular boy who was only a few months older than he was. The boy with silver hair smiled at his younger, and shorter friend, glad to see Sora was alright. Sora seemed much more shocked that Riku was alright though as he stumbled a few steps towards his friend in the yellow tank top. "Riku," he stuck his thumbs on the insides of Riku's mouth and pulled to the sides, stretching him out to make sure he was real.

"Hey hey, cut it out!" Riku lifted the hand that wasn't holding a weapon and knocked Sora's hand away. The silver haired boy with bright teal eyes was holding a red blade in his right hand that had cut all three of those Heartless in one swipe.

"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" Sora talked to himself as he looked up and down his friend, seeing that Riku was completely alright.

"I hope not," Riku said while pushing his hand through his hair. "Took forever to find you."

Sora smiled wide at his best friend, "Riku!" He still couldn't believe it, but then a group of Heartless appeared near them and the group of four now charged at them together. Sora went back to back with his friend and they fought off all the enemies and took them down.

_Darn, I wish my Valor form was ready, Riku would be so impressed!_ Sora saw his friend take out the same amount of enemies as him, Donald, and Goofy combined did, and he was amazed and slightly jealous of his friend like always. "Hey wait a second," Sora stopped the taller kid once they'd walked a little farther, "Where's Kairi?"

"Isn't she with you?" Riku asked back and then both kids looked down. Riku tssked under his breath, he told Sora that Kairi was coming with them, yet here they were with her nowhere in sight. He cheered up, "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island too." He walked past his friend and then held his arms out to the sides, looking up at this amazing town that he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams. "We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now."

Slowly, a black form was rising behind Riku and Sora spotted it out of the corner of his eye. Riku kept talking, "We'll all be together again soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this place like-" he heard a crash and spun around, seeing a black creature like the ones that attacked the island turn to a cloud of darkness with his friend standing where it just was. Sora made sure Riku saw the cool pose he was in after swiping the creature as hard as he could before he turned back around with a smirk of his own on his face.

He lifted up his Keyblade with the yellow hilt and plopped it over his shoulder to rest it there. "Leave it to who?" Sora asked cockily.

"Sora," Riku was surprised, "What did you..."

"I've been looking for you and Kairi too. With their help," he nodded his head over towards Donald and Goofy who were watching from the sidelines. The two of them nodded as Riku turned their direction.

"Who are they?" he asked Sora instead of the creatures directly.

"Ahem," Donald started, "My name is-"

Sora cut him off, "We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you."

_Sora's been to other worlds too?!_ Riku chuckled, "Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed."

Goofy walked up behind their spiky haired friend and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him around a little. "Oh, and guess what?" he told Riku. "Sora's the Keyblade master."

"Who would've thought it?" Donald added snidely.

"Hey, what does that mean?!" Sora yelled at him and the two glared at each other for a second.

"So," Riku started and they turned towards him, "this is called a Keyblade?" Sora looked at his friend who was holding his weapon by the yellow hilt. The chain on the end of it dangled off and Sora looked at his right hand, noticing the weapon was gone and yelling for Riku to give it back.

Donald noticed something then that no one else realized. _It didn't disappear!_ Any time Leon, or anyone else tried picking up Sora or Luffy's Keyblades, the weapon would disappear and go back to its original owner. This time though, Riku just jumped back from Sora and swung the blade once to try it out. Before Donald could think about it further, Riku frowned, "Catch," he tossed the weapon back to Sora and the younger boy bobbled it.

"Whoa," Sora finally got a grip on it and put it back to his side. "So you're coming with us right? We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it."

Donald crossed his arms and shouted, "No! He can't come. Forget it!"

"What?" Sora turned to the duck. "Oh come on! He's my friend."

"I don't care," Donald said back.

Sora was about to yell about how if Luffy got to take his crew along, then he got to bring his friends, but before he could, Goofy brought their attention back to Riku. They looked back, but the young teen was no longer in the same spot he was standing and he wasn't anywhere around them.

"Riku?" Sora stepped forward a few steps and then muttered angrily back at Donald, "Nice going." Sora put his arms behind his head and leaned back. _If Riku came, he would have bossed me around anyway._ "Oh well, the important thing is that he's okay. And who knows, maybe we'll run into Kairi soon too," he said optimistically. _All the worlds are at stake. I'd like to stay here with you Riku, but I have to save everyone first, and find Kairi. Then we'll all meet up and be together, just like we planned._

* * *

After a little while more of searching the Third District, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were walking past a room that had been previously locked but now had lights on inside. The three of them walked over and opened the door, getting quiet the surprise to see everyone else already in there except for Smoker and Luffy.

"Are you finished with the ship?" Sora asked Cid who was turning their way after hearing the door open.

Nami and Usopp turned around from their conversation with Yuffie and looked over towards the three others walking in the room. Cid nodded at the child who was excited to see how their new ship looked, but there were other things to discuss first. "Have you ever heard of Maleficent? I hear she's in town." the mechanic asked and Sora shook his head showing that he hadn't heard of her.

"Who is she?" the boy questioned.

"A witch man, she's a witch!" Cid replied.

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless," Leon added, "don't take her lightly."

Aerith cut in and everyone turned towards her. "She's been using the Heartless for years."

Leon growled, "She's the reason the Heartless came to our world." Everyone looked over at the young man in the black leather pants and jacket. He had rage covering his face as he thought back to his home world.

Cid added, "One day, a swarm of Heartless took over our world!" The blonde man had his hands on his hips and he shook his head.

"That was nine years ago," Leon muttered.

The older mechanic kept going, "I got out of that mess and came here with these guys."

"So you're all from the same world?" Nami asked and Yuffie nodded at her. The young ninja girl was about to tell her what the name of their planet was, but Leon cut back in again.

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem. He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless." The guy with long brown bangs pushed them away and pushed off the wall.

"His reports should tell us how to get rid of the Heartless," Cid explained.

"Where's this report?" Sora asked.

"We don't know," Leon said. "It got scattered when our world was destroyed."

"I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages," Cid said and everyone looked down disappointedly. If the woman controlling all the Heartless had the answer to defeating them, how were they going to get it?!

Sora sighed and tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling and letting his mind wander. _Kairi, where are you?_

* * *

"You see? It's just as I told you," Maleficent was standing outside the door in the Third District. There was a young boy with silver hair, a yellow shirt, and jeans standing next to her with an angry look on his face. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions."

Riku looked through the window where the duck said something to Sora that made his friend scratch the back of his head and start laughing. The three of them were laughing and talking inside, _It's like he doesn't even care that I'm not there anymore._ Riku frowned and listened to the witch as she kept talking.

"Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you." Maleficent looked away from the window and down to the kid staring intensely through the window. "You're better off without that wretched boy. Now," she reached down with the arm holding her staff and placed her hand on the boy's opposite shoulder, pulling him closer to her gently. "Think no more of him, and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for..."

"Riku!" the silver haired kid turned his head to the right and saw another familiar sight. Luffy was running towards him with an older man with white hair smoking a cigar and walking behind him. "When did you get here?! Have you seen Sora..." Luffy skidded to a stop as the woman in the black cloak stepped between him and Riku.

"I'll show you," the woman started and looked back to the teen behind her who was surprised at Luffy's arrival, "who you can believe will get you the strength you need to save your friend." She spun her staff above her head and the green orb at the top of it glowed.

"Straw Hat," Smoker shouted out at the pirate who didn't seem to realize she was an enemy yet.

"Hey Riku, who's your frie-" Luffy stopped mid-sentence as the woman slammed her staff down on the ground and the green light flashed, blinding Luffy and Smoker. Riku stepped out from the back of the woman's black cloak and he stared in awe at the floor in front of her that was slowly turning from gray cement, into darkness covering the whole path.

Luffy blinked a few times trying to get the green glare to go away and finally he regained his bearings. Unfortunately for him, the ground covering the street was now entirely black with little purple swirls inside it. The ground started to shake and the darkness began bubbling. "Who are you?!" Smoker shouted at the woman with horns on top of her wicked face.

"The dead do not need any answers," she responded coldly and then put an arm back on Riku's shoulder. "Now follow me," she said and looked down at the kid while a black hole appeared behind them. Riku looked back towards Luffy and then stared at the bubbles which were forming into a large shape between them. "I'll help you find what you're looking for."

_She has the power I need to find Kairi. This is my chance,_ he looked back and made eye contact with Luffy. A flash of guilt crossed over his face, but then his expression hardened as he remembered what was truly important. He turned back around and pushed Maleficent's hand off his shoulder before stepping into the hole on his own accord.

The witch smiled and thought, _He's perfect!_

"Riku wait!" Luffy shouted and threw his fist towards the hole to try and grab the kid who was getting taken somewhere else. He couldn't run because his feet were caught in the ground, but he could at least try.

His hand got halfway down the street, but when it passed over the growing form of blackness on the ground, a black oozing hand shot up and grabbed him by the rubbery arm. The creature pulled hard and Luffy got ripped from the floor and spun around and around.

While he was spinning with no control, he saw the woman cackle like a maniac and step into the hole after Riku. It closed behind them and he cursed, right as the monster let go and sent him flying into a wall.

Sora and the others inside the apartment heard the crash outside and everyone sprinted into action except for Cid who was left sitting there for a few seconds before realizing, _wait a second, I'm the adult!_ He was the oldest one there, yet he was ashamed to be the last one running outside to fight. He said he'd watch out for Sora, and he really was worried about the kid.

When the blonde man ran through the door, he froze like everyone else and stared in shock at the scene in front of him. "What's happening?" he shouted and dove back inside as a small Heartless in a suit of armor jumped towards the doorway.

Leon sliced the creature in half and then spun around, seeing the street start filling with similar monsters. A small army was forming around a growing black shape in the middle of the street. "What's going on?!" the man shouted over at Luffy who was climbing out from beneath some rubble.

"Some weird witch lady took Riku through a black hole!" Luffy shouted and Sora gasped.

"Wait, Riku was here?" Usopp asked and looked to Nami who hadn't seen the kid either.

"Yeah we saw him," Goofy said. "Gawrsh, do you think the witch lady who took Riku is the same one as Maleficent?"

The whole group who heard what Maleficent was capable of looked around at the street and whoever this weird witch-lady was, she could definitely control the Heartless. "So Maleficent took Riku?!" Sora shouted and looked around for an answer while they were all being targeted by the swarms of Heartless.

Smoker was going to mention how it looked like the silver haired kid went on his own accord, but as he looked over at the boy with brown hair, he could see that would only make things worse. "Damn!" Sora shouted and his Keyblade formed in his right hand, but he gripped it with both.

Monsters started charging, but for some reason they were staying away from the spiky haired kid in the middle of the street who was glaring at the ground furiously. _Riku. I finally found you, and now you're gone again! What am I doing?! Maleficent,_ he growled and his voice became very low, "_**Maleficent**_." His growl was heard over the sounds of fighting going on and a few of the others looked towards the kid.

"Sora?" Nami whispered as she batted away a small dog-like Heartless with her Clima-Tact.

"Focus on what gives me strength and courage," the boy whispered to himself and closed his eyes. "Focus," he whispered, but his mind was swirling with images of his friends, surrounded by darkness. _I won't let her have you! I'll defeat her! I'll destroy her! I'll KILL HER!_ His mind strayed while he was trying to transform into Valor Form, but the boy still lifted up in a flash of white light.

"Go for it Sora!" Goofy shouted. "Use the technique Merlin taught you."

"Wawawa," Donald exclaimed as he was slammed backwards by a large blue Heartless with a fat belly. All the Heartless stopped attacking for a second and everyone turned towards the center of the street where the bright light was going away. "Anytime now Sora... WHAT?!" Donald shouted and stumbled backwards, falling on his feathery butt.

"Wh-What?" Usopp stuttered and took a step back. "That's a new technique Sora learned?"

"No!" Donald shouted and got back to his feet. "I've never seen that before!"

The boy in front of them dropped down to the ground. Little wisps of black swirled around his completely jet black body. His skin, his clothes, his shoes, everything near Sora was suddenly entirely shrouded in darkness. He dropped onto all fours and his head snapped around at the people all around him and the Heartless swarming the street.

The dark form rising a few meters from Sora suddenly emerged and the others stared at the creature in shock. It looked exactly like Sora did now, except it was standing on two feet and held a weapon in one hand. The real Sora looked more like an animal as he snapped his head around. His eyes were the only thing on him that weren't black, and they glowed a bright white which scared them all even more.

"Sora! What's happening to you?" Leon called over to the kid. He took a step, but an armored Heartless stepped in his path and reached up to swipe at him. As Leon moved to dodge, he realized there was no need to.

Sora's head snapped right towards the Heartless in front of Leon and the black creature-boy jumped off all four limbs at the same time. He soared through the air like a rocket and his hands had long claws sticking out of them. The boy spiraled as he approached the Heartless and his claws ripped the creature to shreds in the matter of one second.

He didn't even acknowledge the stunned Leon who lowered his weapon a little at the sight of Sora. The dark spiky-haired boy just backflipped in midair and turned towards the three fat Heartless behind him. He charged at them on all fours and swiped at their fronts, which up until now had been like an impenetrable armor, knocking back anyone who attempted a frontal assault. His claws dug into the Heartless like a knife through butter though and he slashed back and forth before slamming down on the ground and sending all three fat ones up in the air.

"Coooool," Luffy muttered as he watched the boy. "Hey Sora, how are you doing that?" he asked and the kid turned his direction.

Sora wanted to answer, but out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the floating red things charge an attack and he kicked off the ground, shooting towards it and cutting it in half with his hands before it could even fire. Suddenly he was hit from all sides by magic attacks as the other red, blue, and yellow ones all targeted him.

"Sora, heal!" Nami yelled at the boy who hit the ground and tumbled back.

Usopp ran forward, but the fake Shadow Sora appeared in front of him and swiped across his chest with his dark weapon. The man in the white t-shirt drew his weapon and tried crossing it across his chest to defend, but it was a feint and the Dark Sora swept down at Usopp's feet, taking the man off the ground where he hit the floor on his side. Instantly, the darkness began tugging at him all over his body and no matter how hard he struggled to lift up, he was stuck on the floor.

The real Sora turned and saw a mirror image of his dark self turn and stare back, only the Heartless version had black eyes and a wide white smile on its face. The two of them charged at each other while everyone else continued fighting against the Heartless that continued forming around them.

"It's that one," Smoker pointed over at the black version of Sora that was smiling like a crazed person. "If that one is taken down, the rest will follow." He understood what needed to be done and everyone focused their attentions on the weird creature.

It attacked Sora and knocked the kid back, but Sora staggered back up on all fours and charged forward again. "What is he doing?!" Nami exclaimed, "He needs to heal, he's in a lot of danger at the amount of health he probably has left."

"He might now be able to," Goofy said quietly and lowered his shield a little. "Merlin said he couldn't use magic in his other form, but I've never seen this before."

"You mean Sora has another one of these things?" Luffy asked in surprise. While he was sleeping, the kid managed to get a lot stronger. For the very first time since meeting the kid on the island, he actually wondered if he could have a good fight with him once this was all over. The idea made him smile.

"Yep," Donald answered Luffy's question, and the duck lifted his wand, trying to heal Sora. "The other one was what he was trying to turn into, but this must have been one of Merlin's warnings we didn't listen to." Nami interrupted the fight and punched the duck and the dog on top of their heads, yelling that they should have listened to those warnings. Donald rubbed his bump, but then went wide-eyed and shook his wand a few times. "It's not working, I can't even heal Sora the way he is now."

Leon tried tossing the kid a potion, but the green healing medicine wouldn't lock on to the kid and went to the next closest person who was Usopp. The man lying on the ground was feeling his energy get drained, but Leon's potion brought him back to full strength and he ripped hard to pull himself out of the ground.

Usopp had an angry expression on his face and he glared over at the creature that trapped him there in the first place. As he was looking, it seemed his anger was unnecessary as the Shadow Sora stopped smiling and began frowning deeply instead, almost looking afraid. It mirrored the expression on a lot of their faces as the real Sora tackled it backwards into a wall and then started shredding it with rapid claw attacks hard for most of them to even follow.

They didn't know how many times Sora had ripped back and forth before he turned back into his normal self. He turned back into a normal person with all the color back in his clothes and skin, his Keyblade even reappeared back in his hand, but the emotions hew as feeling in that form must have stayed with him, because he kept tearing back and forth with his weapon a few more times. The creature couldn't move since it was backed up into a corner and getting pummeled over and over again, but it didn't matter because the next time Sora wound up, he swiped one more time against his Shadow's neck and ripped the monster completely in two.

Smoker was mid-punch against one of the large fat ones, when suddenly the creature dropped down into the darkness beneath them. All of the others had similar experiences as the street full of monsters became very empty in comparison. Even the darkness went away leaving a panting group of fighters, most of them turning to Sora who was looking down at his own hands.

"What," he whispered, "was that?"

"That was so cool!" Luffy exclaimed and ran towards the boy who slowly turned towards the pirate captain. "How did you do that?"

_Was it because I was thinking about Maleficent, and my hatred towards her? Maybe that dark form, was because of the darkness in my own heart. I don't want to feel that way again,_ he shook his head and looked down. "It wasn't a fun experience, trust me." He lost a little bit of himself while he was in there. He was still conscious, but he couldn't think clearly, he couldn't control all of his actions. He _felt_ like a Heartless, but he knew he wasn't.

"Hmm, alright then," Luffy said and scratched his head.

"So," Goofy turned back to face Leon and his gang who were standing back in front of the door to their house. "Do you think that was the boss?"

"I don't know," Leon said and shrugged. "You should probably stay around a little longer to make sure."

"Roger!" the pirates all said in unison. Smoker just sighed, having not found Tashigi anywhere in the districts. He also had to deal with all of Mugiwara's stupid explanations that didn't really explain anything on their way over here.

Sora smiled a little and added on his own, "Roger," after everyone else had said theirs. It wasn't in his nature to stay sad, and he looked on the bright side. _At least I have a ship that I can use to help find you Riku. We'll fight Maleficent and get you back, you and Kairi!_

**A/N Whoa! Valor-Form and Anti-Form in the same chapter! Haha, hope you enjoyed Sora's training session as Luffy recovers from his first usages of Gear Second and Third. This was the farthest I had written up until now, but tomorrow I am going to write a new chapter or two, full of epic battles and new worlds! Have a few ideas already, and I'd like to hear what you guys have in mind for what's going to happen, as well as any suggestions you want to make, worlds characters could show up in, all sorts of things.** **Anyway, 'till next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

"Where to next?" Usopp asked as he hopped back in the ship and took a seat in the much roomier cockpit now that their additions were finished.

It had been a full day since they defeated the real boss of Traverse Town, and everyone was feeling pretty well-rested. They stayed in town for a few days after Maleficent took Riku, but the Heartless were still all over the place and they finally found that large empty suit of armor guy again. This time though, they were all ready for him and everyone was impressed by Sora's Valor Form which worked this time and didn't turn him into a rabid animal. His dark Anti-Form still confused some of them, but as long as he was in control no one really had a problem with it.

"Looks like there's a new world in the computer," Goofy said as he took a seat near the front and gazed at the map they had so far.

"Oh cool," Sora said as he looked at the map too. "These are the places we've been so far? Look, there's Wonderland!"

"And there's the Colosseum," Usopp said, getting hit with a little nostalgia even though it had only been a short time since he left.

"And the gorilla world," Luffy pointed at a planet covered in jungles.

"We're heading here," Nami pointed at a little dot on the other side of the Deep Jungle. Smoker walked over to her and squeezed in to get a look at the map they were describing. He was stunned on the last voyage, but now he wasn't arguing with the idea of other worlds and decided to accept it for what it was.

"Why can't we see what it looks like?" the Marine Captain asked her angrily.

"Because," she sneered right back, "we haven't been there yet. All I know is that there _is_ a world in that location."

"Then let's go!" Luffy jumped into the ship and pulled the hatch closed behind him. It was Donald's turn to drive and the duck quacked in annoyance because of how many people they were now taking around to these other worlds. He started up the vehicle, but then turned it back off and spun his chair around to face everyone.

"Wawawa!" he threw his hands up in the air. "How many more people are in your crew?" He looked at Nami and the surprised woman held up four fingers slowly. "Then that's it! King Micky entrusted us with this mission and to stay with the Keybearer! Every extra person we bring..."

"Risks damaging the world order," Goofy said and lifted up a hand to show that he knew that one.

"What's so bad about that?" Sora asked, wishing he was allowed to bring Riku along and knowing he was going to ignore Donald anyway if he found Kairi.

Donald smacked Sora on the top of the head with his wand and the boy rubbed his head in annoyance. "We're on a mission to _restore_ the world order! People from other worlds aren't supposed to know that there are other worlds."

As he was talking, Smoker was quickly understanding how small their world was in the scheme of things. However, it seemed like this duck was a member of a world that kept the peace among all the worlds, he seemed to have known about the worlds from before trouble even started. _These Royal Emissaries are the equivalent of the World Government. _"Understood," the Marine said while putting a cigar in his mouth, "unless we find Tashigi," he added.

"Or Kairi," Sora said as well and crossed his arms showing he wasn't giving any leeway there.

Donald quacked exasperatedly, wondering why he even tried.

Smoker took out a lighter, but Nami turned to him and snatched it out of his hand. "What are you doing?" he snarled at her.

"We have to travel from here across the universe! I'm not sitting in a cramped room full of smoke for all that time." She glared at him to make an objection, but Smoker knew no one else appreciated it either and it wasn't like the open sea where you could just open a window, this was space, or something.

He grunted and took the cigar back out of his mouth, sticking it in his coat and grumbling something about loud women. Donald started back up the Gummi Ship and they shot off, heading for their next stop.

* * *

After hours of fighting enemy Heartless ships through space, the crew finally made it to the warp hole the navigation gummi found, and they shot through to the other side. Once there, it didn't take them very long to find the hidden world on the map, and it had a beautiful city with palaces and a bazaar visible from the sky. "Shopping!" Nami shouted with money on her mind.

"Food!" Luffy shouted.

"Umm, aren't we looking for the Keyhole," Sora mentioned, trying to make sure their priorities were set. _And find our friends,_ he added to himself since mentioning it usually got Donald upset.

"That's right!" Donald exclaimed and started lowering them towards the front gates of the city. He lowered the ship down behind a sand dune so that it would stay hidden and they disembarked. "Remember, no meddling!" He reminded loudly to the six travelers with him. Most of them just waved him off muttering, 'Yeah yeah.' The duck's face filled with red and he ran-waddled after them quacking like mad.

* * *

Walking down a road in the middle of Agrabah, were two shady-looking figures wearing black and purple, and black and red respectively. The two of them walked proudly, staves in hand, as if they owned the city as they walked down the main street. Bazaar stands were empty around them and windows closed on the buildings on either side of the sandy street.

The man with a pointed beard and sinister mustache looked powerful. He held up his staff with the head of a cobra at the top and had his nose pointed up a little as if he was looking down at everyone. There was also a small red bird sitting on his left shoulder staying quiet as the two of them conversed. The woman holding a staff with a green orb at the top had a calm expression as she walked with him, which was somehow more threatening than the man's next to her. Anyone who looked at them were able to see the one in charge was the creepy witch. She was speaking down to the sinister man next to her, who the people of the city recognized. "You said you would have the Keyhole in your grasp Jafar."

"It is no matter," Jafar replied as they continued to walk down the road. Neither looked too worried despite what Maleficent was telling him. "I have the Heartless searching all over for it. It is only a matter of time now."

"You must tread carefully," she lectured him. "Rely on the Heartless too much, and you will lose yourself to the darkness."

"Ha!" He laughed. "Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary. I am not that hunter. My heart is far too strong." He did not sound worried himself and Maleficent just nodded.

"And what of this world's princess? I believe you said her name was, Jasmine?" Maleficent asked, glancing to her left to see the man's reaction.

Jafar frowned at the mention of the girl. "I had her in my hands, but that street rat Aladdin swooped in on a flying carpet! I followed through and overthrew the Sultan anyway, and threw him to the Heartless."

"That was foolish," Maleficent snapped, before calming herself immediately. Jafar looked at her with a surprised look as well and the two stopped walking. She was always calm and collected, except for when her sadistic side came out. Still, he never expected the woman to snap at him in frustration. She continued, "You should have used the old fool as a hostage. The Princesses of Heart are all goody-two-shoes who wouldn't even think about leaving their dear father in _your _clutches."

Jafar frowned now that he thought about it. He shook his head and chuckled again, "Perhaps, but it is being handled." Maleficent lifted her eyebrows at the former Grand Vizier, and now new Sultan of Agrabah. The tan-skinned man with a black pointed beard stroked it and started walking down the road again, Maleficent keeping his pace. "My new apprentice is taking care of it as the Heartless are all preoccupied searching for the Keyhole."

"An apprentice?" Maleficent questioned. "I didn't take you for the type of man who..."

"She was quite good at taking out the royal guards when I went to claim the palace." Jafar talked up his new apprentice and grinned at the woman he interrupted. "I would say she is stronger than that boy you have taken to."

Maleficent grinned as she realized why the man took on an apprentice now. The two walked with their faces straight ahead again, walking side by side, and the witch thought, _He believes he holds as much power as I. _She almost laughed out loud at the idea. Still, she continued the conversation, "This apprentice of yours may be strong, but could she wield the Keyblade?" Jafar stayed silent which meant 'no.' Maleficent nodded, "Well I saw Riku grab the Keyblade right out of the Keybearer's hand, and it did not disappear."

Jafar mumbled 'Mmm' in agreement as that was something important that their group definitely needed. She continued speaking to him, "We need all seven princesses of heart to open to final door. Any fewer is useless."

"There is no need for concern, my apprentice _will_ find her," Jafar hissed through his teeth. The bird on his shoulder squawked in agreement before flying off, while the two of them continue to walk. The two tall figures turned down the next street in front of them, and then they froze in their tracks.

"Well, let's just try this way," Sora said to the group of people behind him, looking over his shoulder as he did. Every single one of their faces turned to complete shock at that moment and Sora spun his head back around. "Who are you?!" He shouted at the two dark figures in front of him who looked mildly surprised to see him and those behind him.

"Well," Jafar started in a normal voice, losing his surprised look after a second. He lifted up his left hand and scratched his beard a few times. "I would say," he wasn't talking to the kid as much as the woman next to him. "If I had to guess, this boy," he nodded at the child in front of him, then looked over at the one in the Straw Hat, "and that one there with the stupid looking hat are the Keybearers. Not much are they?" He questioned loud enough for everyone in front of him to hear. He already knew who weld the Keyblade, but it entertained him to see their reactions.

A few of the members gained angry expressions for he insult, while Usopp, Nami, and Smoker were actually getting a little serious. They looked at these two nervously, and then the Marine Captain shouted, "That's the witch."

Luffy's eyes widened as he recognized the green staff and the dark woman in general. "Where did you take Riku?" The pirate demanded, lifting his pissed expression and getting seriously angry.

"That's the witch who took Riku?" Sora exclaimed looking back at the friends behind him. He spun back and growled out, "So you're Maleficent then?"

"Sora," she replied in a smug tone, showing he wasn't the only one who knew the other's name. "I did not take Riku, he came with me of his own accord."

"Shut up!" Sora shouted, bringing his hands together in front of him. His Keyblade formed in his tight grip and everyone behind him readied themselves.

Maleficent laughed, tilting her head back to cackle for a few seconds. "My dear boy," she started, showing she did not take him seriously at all by the way she had no guard up. Her smile twisted strangely and the sudden movement made Sora's entire group charge forward in a panic, but they were too late. Maleficent snapped her fingers and disappeared in a flash of darkness that shot up from below her feet. Her voice came through the portal, "I shall meet you back at your palace, please arrive with the princess, shortly."

The black portal disappeared and the man she was speaking to frowned and grumbled under his breath. "Do not give me orders." He turned to the group who were all armed and in front of him. He had the urge to fight, to have others come fight them, but he saw the level of these pirates and the Marine during their fight with Clayton. His head turned to the duck and dog holding up a shield and wand. "Ahh, emissaries of the King."

"You know the King?!" Donald exclaimed in a nasally voice, wondering if he should lower the wand he had pointed angrily at the guy.

"Are you and His Majesty friends?" Goofy asked.

"Oh, no," Jafar replied with a small chuckle as all his enemies hesitated in front of them. They looked on the urge to attack him, but really all this man had done was aggravate them with his comments. He had not moved once since their conversation started. "The King is a thorn in my side, just like you bunch. However," Jafar continued, a grin coming to his face. "Your King does not like to involve himself with other worlds does he? Something about meddling?"

The way he was hinting it showed he already knew the answer. "What does that have to do with anything?!" Sora yelled at the guy who was getting on his nerves.

"Well," Jafar droned. "I am the King of Agrabah." A few of the others looked at the dark shady man, and though looking very evil, he was also powerful. "Dethroning a King would of course be, meddling, would it not?"

Donald and Goofy paused and looked in at each other nervously. "He is right," Goofy said, his voice wavering a little as he lowered his shield.

"Are you serious?" Sora asked the two next to him. The boy with spiky brown hair watched his friends nod and he lowered his Keyblade, allowing it to disappear. "Guess we've got no choice."

Sora saw Jafar looking expectantly behind them to the others, and he turned as well to see Nami, Usopp, and Luffy all still holding up their weapons. "Guys, we should listen to-"

"He insulted Hat," Luffy growled, his mouth in a snarl as his beloved Straw Hat was insulted to his face by this man. He wasn't going to let him get away with it. "I don't care if he is a King, I'm gonna kick his ass."

Usopp and Nami nodded, accepting this fate from the moment the man mentioned their captain's hat. Smoker stood next to the pirates and he turned to face them, lifting up his fist and his sea-stone jutte. "Mugiwara," Smoker growled at the pirate. Overthrowing a government was not what Smoker came to do here. He was looking for Tashigi, not playing pirate or letting one run wild. The white haired Marine growled and cursed his foolish actions up until this point, "I knew I had to stop you. There's just no working with pirates."

"This again?!" Nami exclaimed, backing up nervously as her legs shook.

Usopp thought the same thing and frowned over at Smoker. Luffy looked at the Marine and jumped backwards as Smoker swung the kairoseki jutte at him. "Whoa!" The pirate exclaimed, then smirked and punched back at the Smoke Man. "I got stronger since last time Smokey!" Luffy called to the man he'd gotten in several fights with since becoming a pirate.

Usopp sighed as Luffy lost track of their real target, and he turned back to face the evil enemy. While Donald and Goofy ran back to stop the two from fighting with Nami. Usopp marched towards Jafar, gaining the attention of Sora who was caught between wanting to fight Jafar or helping Luffy. The boy turned and watched as Usopp walked right towards the man.

"Ah, the famous Captain Lazerblades," Jafar said in a mocking tone. Usopp froze in his tracks, his eyes narrowing at the King in front of him. "You know me?" He asked sharply. The long nosed man was still in his white toga from the Collosseum, with his broadsword held firmly in his right hand out to his side.

"Yes, Hades went on for a great length about you and this Hercules fellow destroying all of the Heartless he releases into his world. It became quite bothersome, though one of my associates was interested. In fact, he was _very _interested in you. So much so, that he decided to go have a look for himself." Jafar paused as he saw the look of realization come to Usopp's face. Sora looked back and forth between them, no idea what was happening.

Behind them, Luffy and Smoker were in an all out brawl. Luffy went Gear Second, but Smoker had new tricks as well. The two of them shot around, until Smoker slammed the jutte into Luffy's stomach and drained the pirate's strength, removing his Gear Second instantly and making the pirate collapse. He kept the power-draining weapon pressed against Luffy's squirming body until Donald and Goofy were able to convince him to let him go. He was a Keybearer and they needed to help him, and Donald finally had to say that they would leave him behind if he kept attacking Luffy. This got the Marine ending the fight there, but he did mention they could not attack Jafar.

Jafar started laughing at around that time and everyone looked over at him. Usopp was standing before him, holding the white sash across his chest with a tight grip, feeling the scar underneath it. The man cackled and said, "...I believed he was a lost cause when he went to find you, but we all watched as he cut you down. It was actually quite entertaining," he finished, smirking at the teen.

Luffy heard the end of what the guy was saying from over where he pushed up onto his knees. He was panting from his fight with Smoker, mad he still couldn't punch the Smoke Man without his fist going through the guy. He looked over and saw Usopp grabbing the same area where he had a large scar underneath. "What are you talking about?" Luffy called over, thinking this was he guy who gave Usopp that scar or something, making him even angrier.

"It does not matter," he replied, his smile dropping back down into a calm frown. "I have grown tired of you." He lifted up his wooden staff and other arm and held them up to either side.

Out of the ground in front of him, a dozen Heartless holding cutlasses and wearing desert clothing emerged from out of nowhere. At the same time as the Bandit Heartless appeared, a couple large pots on either side of the street exploded out on certain parts, long purple legs shooting out of them and making Heartless Pot Spiders.

Nami was freaking out and she spun around to see three Large Bodies appearing out of nowhere. Between the three were two more, only she had never seen large fat Heartless like these before. These ones were red, and she could see flames coming out of their dark evil faces. "We're surrounded!"

"He uses the Heartless," Usopp muttered, "and he's not like the others, he can actually control it."

Nami thought back to that creature in Wonderland. It was pretty strong, but it was just another Heartless. That stupid queen wouldn't be able to control them either.

Sora thought about the mindless Shadow version of himself that he had to fight in Traverse Town. That was a powerful enemy in itself. And Maleficent created it with a snap of her fingers. He gulped imagining this man being at the same strength, but he lifted his hands anyway and made the Kingdom Key reappear in them.

Luffy and Smoker each thought about Clayton. The hunter lost control of the Heartless and turned into a monster himself. This guy though, he was a different kind of monster.

"Hey! We weren't fighting you!" Donald shouted at the guy.

Jafar ignored the stupid duck and turned around. He took a few steps away before vanishing into darkness just like Maleficent before him.

"See what you did?!" Nami shouted at the white haired older man she moved closer to all of a sudden. She was less afraid of Smoker than she was of the Heartless around her at the moment, so she did not really mind the fact he was a Marine.

"Me?" The man growled angrily, lighting up a new cigar in his mouth as he did.

"Yeah you!" the woman snapped at him, not afraid of the intimidating tone e tried to use. The Marine sweatdropped as she lifted her face up towards him and yelled, "You'd rather fight us than the shady guy with evil facial hair who was obviously the enemy!"

"He's the King of this country," Smoker began, though he was looking around at the Heartless with less conviction in his voice than before.

"If he's using the Heartless though," Goofy spoke up, lifting back up his shield.

"Then we have to stop him!" Sora yelled, charging at the Large Bodies and the red fat ones called Fat Bandits. The two red ones puffed out their chests and then snapped forward shooting fireballs at the boy with spiky brown hair charging them. Sora leapt up in the air over the fireballs and to the other side of the fat enemies. They turned around slowly, so the young Keybearer managed to get a few hits on their weak spots in the back.

Luffy finally stopped his panting and looked over to where the big enemies were turning around to face Sora, revealing their back to him. He smirked and pulled back both arms, "Gum Gum Baz-" one of the Heartless behind Luffy where he threw his arms brought down a cutlass and slashed the pirate's arm. "Ouch!" Luffy exclaimed, throwing his hands forward to escape further injuries from the Bandits behind him.

Usopp charged the enemies who slashed his captain and he leapt up in the air. The muscular man came down and slammed his broadsword in the center of them, sending six dark-faced Bandits with their heads wrapped up, and rings on their black little fingers, flying in different directions. He saw one swinging down for his head from behind and he lifted up his sword, blocking the attack over his shoulder, then pushing harder and breaking right through the creature's blade.

Smoker looked around as the group he was with fought these monsters of the King of the country. _The bastard left me to die by his creatures' hands as well. King or not, he's my enemy. _The Marine's face hardened and he turned to see three creatures with black faces and orange wings diving off rooftops above him. The Air Soldier Heartless swooped down with their sharp red claws right towards the orange haired girl battling a Pot Spider with only a wooden staff.

Nami broke the pottery and watched as it exploded and munny flew out of it. Her eyes turned into Munny symbols and she ran forward, but saw shadows descending over her and looked up to see the flying Heartless almost at her. She couldn't raise her staff quick enough, but a pillar of smoke crashed into the three beings and sent them slamming against the wall on her left side.

She spun to see Smoker with both of his hands raised, pulling the smoke back into his body. The man with the Plume Plume fruit turned to Usopp, but he was handling the rest of the Pot Spiders and Bandits with ease. Looking over to the larger Heartless though, the others were having a more difficult time.

A few more Air Soldiers flew down and swiped their red claws at the fighters below, catching them off guard as they dodged the heavy hits from their larger enemies. One of the Fat Bandits and a Large Body were down, but the remaining red one fueled up and fired out a continuous breath of flames that swept back and forth on the street, catching all of the enemies while not hurting his comrades at all.

Goofy fell down to his knee as a Large Body body-slammed him through the flames. "Goofy!" Sora called out, lifting his Keyblade to help his fallen friend. The tip glowed green, and the Cure magic went over to Goofy, but while he was distracted he got hit by the other Large Body's fist. The kid tumbled back and stay sitting with a dazed look on his face, while Luffy tried punching the one that just hit him. His rubber fists bounced off the creature's front with no effect at all, and the pirate frowned as he still couldn't break through their defenses.

Smoker flew over with his sea-stone jutte in his hand and slammed it against the front of a Large Body, but the steel bounced off again. When the Heartless swung a fist forward, the Marine Captain stepped to the side, then brought his weapon back again, though this time he closed his eyes and concentrated first. Usopp finished taking out the enemies on one side and looked over to his friends who weren't faring too well, and he saw Smoker pulling back his jutte extra far this time. Then, a strange energy emitted from the weapon that was invisible to the sight, but when the older man swung his weapon forward, the Large Body was sent tumbling backwards in a roll that stopped when it exploded into darkness again.

_What was that?_ Usopp thought as he watched Smoker open back his eyes with a satisfied look on his face. He shot off the ground and slammed his weapon into the next Large Body, but it bounced off this time and the thing swung its arm and knocked the Smoke Man out of the air.

Smoker growled as he got back up to his feet after being knocked down by the beast. _Still can only get it about half of the time,_ the man thought, jumping backwards as his enemy swung the other fist towards him.

"Thunder!" Donald yelled, and a dozen bolts of lightning came down and blew apart the rest of the already-weakened enemies on the street. His Thunder magic was getting a lot stronger lately, and though the duck wouldn't admit it, it was thanks to Sora pushing them so hard to get stronger.

"Sora," Nami exclaimed, running over to the boy still sitting on his butt who had a dazed expression on his bruised up face. "Here," she handed the boy a potion she picked up along with all the munny inside of a Pot Spider Heartless earlier. The small green potion made the boy shake his head a few times and get back up on his feet. He frowned seeing all the enemies defeated and that he was left out of it.

His leg still hurt a little and Nami could see that, but as she was about to ask someone for another potion, the boy lifted up his Keyblade and cured himself. Then, he cured a few others before his magical energy was drained.

"That's a nice technique you got there," Smoker muttered as he looked at the boy. Sora turned to the intimidating Marine who also looked a little injured from the fights. He was out of magical energy, but he lifted up his hand and a potion he had appeared in it, "Here," the kid said, tossing it at the man. The potion broke apart and green light shimmered onto the Marine who felt a few small bruises go away.

"Save your potions Sora," Usopp muttered as he walked towards them from the other side of the street. They all looked over at the muscular man as he continued, "We're going to need them-"

All of Usopp's friends went wide-eyed as another Bandit Heartless came out of the ground right behind him with its sword already raised. He started to turn himself, but he wasn't quick enough. "Hi-yah!" Someone yelled and the creature behind Usopp exploded into black bubbles that dispersed in the air. Everyone looked back behind Usopp to a light-skinned guy in a blue shirt open down the middle that revealed his toned abs and chest. He had a small red hat on, and a friendly smile as he slung his sword over his shoulder and grinned over at them. "Hey there," he greeted the group.

"Who are you?" Sora asked the guy.

"I'm Aladdin," the man replied. "I see you guys have met Jafar's goons. Come on," he said, turning and waving his hand forward for them to follow him. "I have somewhere safe we can go."

Sora started running after the guy as he raced off down the street, introducing himself as he did. Luffy was about to shout at the guy that he just wanted to go fight Jafar, when he saw the street rat Aladdin leap up on a box and then a rooftop. Luffy smiled, "That looks fun," he exclaimed. The pirate ran forward with Donald and Goofy already ahead of him, trying to keep Sora in sight.

Nami sighed and started running after them, but as Smoker moved to go along, Usopp held out an arm and stopped the white haired man. The Marine turned to the muscular man on his right and lifted his eyebrows, wondering what the young man was doing. "You need to stop fighting us Smoker," Usopps stated, keeping his eyes forward and watching as their group advanced. Goofy helped Nami up to a box and then she managed to hop up on the roof next to it to follow the others around. A few more Heartless appeared and their friends fought against them, but Usopp needed to make sure of something.

The long nosed pirate turned to the Marine back with him who was glaring at him intensely. "I don't know what we did to suffer your wrath, but your stubbornness not to work with us is holding up our efforts to fix the world order."

"What does a pirate care-"

Usopp shut Smoker up loudly, now that their friends were pretty far away. Nami looked back to see the two of them arguing, but she got distracted by more Heartless who were swarming them because Luffy and Sora had their Keyblades out. Usopp had shouted at Smoker, "We do care!" and made the Marine freeze mid-sentence. "Kaya, my father, everyone in my village, I know where they are right now, and being lost in that darkness is not something I would wish on any of my enemies. It's not just me," he shouted at the Marine before him. "Nami's family, Luffy's brother, Sora's friends, and your own comrades in the Marines, all of them are gone, as well as everyone else in our world."

The long nosed man saw Smoker's hardened face soften as the man's mind drifted to thinking about all the Marines he trained with, his mentor and friend Aokiji, everyone. Usopp continued as he thought, "Now, if you would rather fight us than help us save all of them, then I am going to kick you out of the Gummi Ship myself." The pirate turned around and started jogging after his friends, "Luffy and Sora are important for saving the universe. You are disposable, remember that," Usopp called out, frowning as he did. "As am I," he muttered under his breath, his own face filling with determination as he leapt up on a rooftop and sprinted to catch up with his friends.

Smoker stared after the young man who was no longer the same teenager he chased through Loguetown and Alabasta. At the time he couldn't care less about Straw Hat's crew; other than Pirate Hunter Zoro, they all seemed weak. He ground his teeth together as the twenty year old's words echoed in his mind. _Leave me behind? He can't do that..._ Really there was no reason Smoker could think of why they wouldn't just leave him on this planet after they were done with it. He went along with them after leaving the Deep Jungle where he appeared because all of his men were turned into Heartless, but as to why they let him come with them... he couldn't figure it out. _Tashigi,_ he thought, remembering why he was traveling with them in the first place.

The Marine Captain grumbled under his breath, but he finally turned his lower body to smoke and flew after the group he couldn't even see anymore. _I will find you._ Smoker thought as he lifted over the rooftops and saw the group he was with. _And then, we will capture these pirates._

* * *

"Nice place," Sora said as he walked in after Aladdin. The boy leaned back and sat on the comfy looking couch near the entrance. As soon as he sat down, he shot back up with a startled look on his face and the others who walked in behind him went wide-eyed to see a carpet lift off of the couch and start swirling around in the air. "Uh, sorry," Sora apologized to the sentient piece of cloth that he mistook for furniture.

Luffy looked at the carpet and exclaimed, "Cool!"

Aladdin turned around and held out his arms, "Welcome!" The friendly looking resident greeted his guests, who introduced themselves back to him, then Aladdin looked over towards a bookshelf on the opposite wall as the couch. Across the small room from the door was a large hole leading outside, and now that the guests looked around, the place looked really run down. "Hey Abu, come on out," Aladdin whispered as he walked over and slid the bookshelf out of the way a little.

As the cabinet moved, a small monkey wearing a pink and red vest and hat jumped out from behind it. "You did a great job," Aladdin thanked his friend as he then leaned down into the hole behind the bookshelf, "Here, take my hand," he said, talking to someone other than the monkey this time.

The tiny monkey who came out from behind the bookshelf ran over to all the people he didn't recognize entering the room. He finally stopped on the one with the straw hat, and he jumped up and landed on Luffy's shoulder. The rubber pirate grinned at the monkey as it danced cheerfully, "Nice to meet you too, Abu," Luffy greeted.

The others sweatdropped at Luffy's weird connection with animals and just looked back over at Aladdin who was helping someone out from behind his bookshelf. "Whoa," Nami whispered as she saw a gorgeous woman in light blue attire being pulled out of a small space in the wall.

"Aladdin, thank goodness you're safe," the woman exclaimed as Aladdin pulled her up. She wrapped her arms around him once she got to her feet and the young man went red in the face.

"Yeah, haha, sorry about running off like that," Aladdin apologized. "I found these guys fighting those monsters that were with Jafar."

"Nice to meet you," she greeted the group who walked in. "I am Princess-, no, actually, I am just Jasmine." She looked down with a crestfallen look on her face.

"Jasmine," Aladdin whispered as the girl walked over to the hole in the wall and looked out over the empty streets of her city.

"What happened here?" Sora asked his new friend who brought them here.

Aladdin turned to the teenager behind him and explained to him and the whole group with him how Jasmine was actually the Princess of this kingdom. Unfortunately, Jafar overthrew her father a few days ago, but Aladdin managed to save her when Jafar's goons went after her.

"You fought off the Heartless on your own?" Usopp asked, sounding impressed with the young street rat.

Aladdin scratched his head, "Not really," he started. "I was in the Cave of Wonders when I found that magic carpet," he pointed at the creature that landed next to him and stood up on two of its corners as if they were feet. "And I also found this cool lamp with a genie inside!" He held up the lamp he had behind his back and the others looked at it in amazement. "I used my first wish to send away all those creatures and we made a break for it. I know this town like the back of my hand so," he grinned as they made it back safely.

"This world sounds awesome-" Luffy began, and then oofed as a wand slammed into his side and a fist hit him on the top of the head. Nami and Donald both pulled the Captain's head down and started scolding him about talking about worlds in front of people.

"World?" Aladdin asked, also making Jasmine and Abu look at the strangers oddly.

"Well, we come from somewhere far away, almost like a whole other world," Sora said.

"Nice save," Usopp whispered down into the boy's ear as Aladdin smiled at the response.

Jasmine still looked sad as she looked back at them, "I do not know why Jafar is so intent on capturing me. He is a monster," she whispered, looking horribly sad.

"Hey," Aladdin started with the face of a man who just had a great idea. It hurt him to see Jasmine in so much pain, so he looked at the group of fighters in front of him and said, "You guys sure were doing work on those monsters, would you mind giving us a hand?"

Sora turned to his left at Goofy, then his right at Donald, and they both nodded at him. "Of course we will," the boy told the man in front of them. "It's our job to fight the Heartless anyway. That's what those creatures are called."

"Will you really help me?" Jasmine asked the people in front of her.

Usopp nodded his head, the muscular man smiling over at the young Princess with a smile of his own. Nami looked at the muscular man and then over at the beautiful woman and she elbowed back in his stomach. "Oof, what was that for," he gasped out at her. She just hmphed and crossed her arms, though she then smiled over at Jasmine as well and said they couldn't just leave this place to Jafar. Jasmine smiled at the orange haired teenager who had a reassuring look in her eyes.

"These guys could do anything they put their minds to," Nami assured the Princess before her.

"Yes, they even took down an entire criminal organization on our world," another voice agreed. Luffy, Nami, and Usopp all nodded in agreement with that voice. "And the captain defeated the Warlord Crocodile. It was quite the impressive sight." Luffy grinned at the compliment, then his eyes popped open wide. Usopp and Nami each heard the voice as well and slowly started turning their heads over to the hole in the wall that Princess Jasmine was backing away from.

Standing right in the center of the hole, her feet on the edge of Aladdin's house, was a woman who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She had short black hair that was longer than Nami's but only by a little bit. She had on a purple t-shirt, with tight black pants, and everyone in the room looked over at the woman with either confused or shocked eyes.

The room was silent for a few seconds as they all stared at her in varying stages of shock. Smoker's eyes widened and his cigar fell out of his mouth from where he stood closest to the door out of Aladdin's house. The three pirates in front of him had their jaws dropped, while Sora looked surprised as well. Donald and Goofy were surprised solely because she came out of nowhere, and Jasmine was... slowly backing away from the new woman in the room. "Hello," she started, a completely calm voice, "I am here for the Princess."

"Robin!"

**A/N Whoa! Robin is here! What is she doing in Agrabah? What's up with the whole 'I'm here for the Princess' thing? Will our heroes be able to save this world? Find out next time on Broken Log Pose! Haha, hope you enjoyed, and leave a review below telling me what you thought of the chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Sorry for the long wait, but here's chapter 14! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or One Piece.**

* * *

"Robin?!" Nami exclaimed, shouting over Luffy, Usopp, and Sora at the same time.

"Nico Robin," Smoker growled, looking across the small room at one of the Government's most wanted criminals. Aokiji had told him once of the girl who survived the massacre of Ohara. _She knows how to read the Poneglyphs, she could decipher the ancient weapons... Not that it matters anymore,_ he thought at the end as the ancient weapons were most likely lost along with the Poneglyphs and their entire world.

Jasmine looked over at the people who just entered Aladdin's house, and many of them looked happy to see the black haired woman. "You know this woman?" Jasmine shouted, panic coming to her face as these very same people just told her they would help her plight.

"Yeah, she's on my crew," Luffy explained to the Princess wearing light blue clothes and golden jewelry.

Smoker looked shocked that this woman with a bounty almost as high as Mugiwara's had joined his crew after Alabasta and before their world was destroyed. Before he could say anything though, Nami spoke up to the Princess, "Do you know her?" She glanced back at Robin who she was initially happy to see, but now felt a little more on edge after hearing what she had to say. _"I am here for the Princess." Robin, what are you doing?_

Jasmine nodded her head as she stared at Robin angrily, "This is the woman who took out all of the palace guards." Sora's eyes widened in shock, along with many of the others in the room who thought she might be an ally judging from Luffy's expression towards her. Jasmine continued with a half-afraid, half-angry voice, "She helped Jafar overthrow my father!"

Nico Robin stared ahead at the group of people in the room with her and despite the calm expression on her face, she was deep in thought. She had not moved from the hole in the wall where she appeared before them, and her eyes examined each of the people in the room.

_A Marine Captain is here, Smoker no less. Fighting a Logia would be impossible right now. How did Straw Hat-san get here? Has he been here ever since Destiny Islands? Navigator-san is here too, and... that must be Long Nose-kun. Hmm, he looks older. Strange._

"Oi Robin," Luffy started up in a carefree tone, "why are you working with that Jafar guy?" The rubber pirate put his hands behind his head and was the least concerned of all the people in the room.

Robin turned to the rubberman who was her captain for a short time following Alabasta. Her mind flashed for a moment to the city of Alubarna, after Luffy had defeated Crocodile, when he picked her up and saved her life when she had given up. And then not two weeks after she joined their crew, he left her. She arrived in this strange place with powerful enemies, ones she defeated with her Devil Fruit power and natural ability to survive, but strong ones nonetheless. "Working against him would be foolish," Robin stated calmly as a response. "No force in this city or the surrounding desert could stand up to him, so it was smarter to work alongside him."

Sora tilted his head to the side, then looked at Robin with a stern expression on his face, "Didn't you know what he was doing was wrong?" The fourteen year old asked. Robin looked at the boy who was trying so hard not to look at her judgingly, and to give her the benefit of the doubt. She remembered seeing him in the cave back on his island, etching away at a carving in the stone wall, drawing a picture of him and that cute girl he was always with. "Jafar is a bad guy," Sora continued, explaining why she shouldn't have followed him.

"And what would you have done?" Robin asked, actually intrigued by Sora's statement.

She looked at the boy carefully, but he didn't need a moment to think about it, "I would have fought him of course!" Sora shouted, clenching his right fist tight and pulling it in to his side.

Nami looked at the back of the younger boy in front of her, and she felt guilty. Now that she thought about it, if that horrible man had let her join him, she most likely would have done the same thing. _I couldn't stand up to a guy like that,_ the navigator thought sadly.

"Hmm," Robin hummed, nodding her head as she did believe the boy would have done that. "And if you knew for sure, you had no chance of defeating him?"

"Then we'd fight him anyway," Sora said, nodding his head with such assurance in his voice no one could possibly doubt his words.

"It's what the King would do, hyuck," Goofy agreed, thinking of his good friend Mickey who never would have went along with Jafar.

Aladdin was moving closer to Jasmine, holding up a blade in his right hand as he looked at this woman warily. Robin looked over at him and the girl behind him, "She is rather important to Jafar," the woman stated, still not showing her intentions at all. Her presence in the room had half of the inhabitants feeling very tense as they couldn't read her expression at all. "I heard him talking to a woman about gathering all seven princesses."

"Seven?" Donald started, turning his head towards Sora.

"Princesses?" The boy finished, looking at Donald with a similarly confused gaze.

Nami's eyes widened the largest however. She thought back to Wonderland where that dark portal appeared and sucked in the sweet girl being held prisoner with her. "That's what the person who took Alice said too. Seven princesses, why do you think Maleficent is gathering them?" Nami asked the older woman in front of her.

_Maleficent? That must be who Jafar was talking to. Odd, it seems they know of these sorts of things already._ "Nico Robin," her thought train was halted by a rough voice coming from the farthest side of the room. Her calm smile lowered a little as Smoker pushed up front next to Luffy and Sora. "Are you our enemy?" he asked, a question that made the room silent again.

Smoker did not miss the woman telling them about Jafar and Maleficent's conversation. There was no need for her to say it to them if they were enemies, but she also said that she was here for the Princess. Jasmine told them she was working with Jafar, but until a few minutes ago, he had not deemed that man his enemy either. He glared her in the eyes, and she looked right back at him.

"Of course she's not," Luffy said loudly. "She's my nakama."

Robin's eyes opened a little wider as she turned her head to the pirate wearing a straw hat. He smiled at her with a goofy grin and continued, "We looked all over a bunch of different worlds trying to find you. So far Sanji, Zoro, and Chopper are still missing, but we'll find them soon too!" Luffy exclaimed, looking really excited that he found another of his crew members.

_He looked all over different 'worlds' for me? Nakama. This boy... I would rather work with him than with Jafar to be honest with myself. It was short, but the time I spent on that crew was, fun. That princess will not forgive me though, but perhaps..._ Robin smiled genuinly at the pirate captain in front of her. "Thank you for looking for me, Captain-san," she stated, the word 'Captain' making the pirates and Sora all smile to see she was still part of his crew.

Smoker lowered his guard a little, but then turned to the princess who still looked on guard. Jasmine stepped forward a little, moving past Aladdin who told her to get back. She smiled at him but then looked back forward with a serious expression, "You killed the guards, did you not?"

Robin lost her smile as she looked back at Jasime. "I incapacitated them, yes. But it was Jafar who released the Heartless on them."

"Heartless," Jasmine whispered, thinking of the dark creatures that almost captured her. She remembered closing her eyes for a second, and then feeling herself get whooshed off the ground as Aladdin came flying in on a flying carpet. The Heartless had chased them, but Aladdin's new friend the Genie had helped them out.

"Finding the princess was the duty Jafar gave me," Robin stated out loud for them all to hear. "And he expects me to return with a prisoner by sunset."

"That's not going to happen," Aladdin said, looking at the woman with a dangerous look in his eye.

Ignoring him for the moment, Robin continued, "Meanwhile, the Heartless are busy at work looking for this world's, 'Keyhole,' was the word Jafar gave it." Sora's eyes widened as he heard this part, and Robin continued, "From what I have heard, they are close to finding it."

"We've gotta stop them!" Sora shouted, wondering what would happen if one of those Keyholes Leon talked about were to fall to someone like Jafar before he could close it.

The black haired woman wanted to ask why, but instead she continued with her explanation for the time being. "The majority of the Heartless are in a place called the Cave of Wonders, searching for it right now," Robin stated. She still had not moved from the hole in the wall, and she started looking at the younger girl with orange hair who was looking back at her with a thoughtful look.

Nami was coming up with a plan, and Robin expected no less from the intelligent navigator. She had one herself, but saying it out loud would be too suspicious-sounding. Many of them would think she was leading them into a trap if the words came out of her own mouth, so she hoped Nami would have a plan that would be similar to her own. Nami's eyes lit up and she looked around at the people around her, "I have an idea," she said, making them all turn her way.

"We know where Jafar is right?" Nami asked, looking over at Robin who nodded her head and said that he would be at the palace awaiting her return with Jasmine, which Aladdin loudly rejected once again. He was looking very defensive as he stood next to Jasmine, watching each of the people with this Robin character carefully after hearing what the woman did to Jasmine's royal guards. If it was just the kid and those animal creatures, he might have been a little more relaxed, but this whole thing was unnerving to him.

Nami continued once she was assured that Jafar was in the palace. "Then Robin should bring Jasmine to him," she continued quickly as Aladdin opened his mouth to interject, "only the Princess isn't her only prisoner." Everyone stopped for a moment to think on what she said, while Robin smiled seeing that Nami did come up with a good plan after all. "Aladdin you can go with her to make sure she's safe..."

"Yes, Jafar was quite persistent that I capture you as well," Robin said to the man who snatched away the princess from in front of Jafar. "You made him very angry."

"Good," Aladdin said, smirking over at the woman, then realizing he dropped his guard and regaining a frown quick.

Nami continued, "But Aladdin shouldn't be the only one with them. Some of us should go too," she said, looking around at the others with her. Instantly, Luffy's hand shot up, but Nami shook her head at him, "You can't go."

"Ehh, why not?" Luffy asked, and the others were pretty interested to hear why as well.

Nami grinned and said, "While Jafar is distracted by the group at the palace, another group is going to search this Cave of Wonders for the, Keyhole." She remembered seeing Sora's Keyblade light up inside the upside-down room in Wonderland, and then again in the Deep Jungle. She didn't know what was so important about these Keyholes, but the fate of these worlds was at stake so she didn't want to take any chances.

"Sora and Luffy should go to the Keyhole," Goofy stated, the knight nodding his head as he thought about their mission from the King and the one they determined was their own after hearing about it from Leon in Traverse Town. Stopping Jafar and helping Jasmine was a plus, but it was not their main reason for coming to this world. It almost stretched the line with meddling, but as long as the Heartless were involved, this was their fight.

"Got it," Sora said. He smiled thinking about their plan and how it wouldn't work without having so many people in their group. _Guess it is a good thing. Donald is just too worried all the time. Next time I find Riku, I'll get him to come along too, that way he could be a part of these missions!_ The spiky haired teen lifted up his hands and his Keyblade formed in them, "You ready Luffy?" he asked the pirate on his right side.

Luffy looked to his left and down a little before grinning himself. "You bet," Luffy said, lifting up his own hands and making his black Keyblade form in them. The two of them lifted their weapons and put the prongs of their Keyblades together, "All for one-" Luffy began.

Sora continued loudly, "And one for all!"

* * *

"I still don't trust her," Aladdin whispered to the girl walking on his left side. The princess wearing blue pants looked to her right at the man she told not to come along multiple times but wouldn't listen to her. He would not leave Jasmine with these people he just met, though as they went over the plan a few more times and he got to know each of them, there were a few he felt safe around. Unfortunately, most of them were in the other group out in the desert right now.

Aladdin marched down the street as a prisoner, his hands tied behind his back with a convincing frown on his face. He struggled against the ropes as they made it to the gates of the palace courtyard. Robin walked behind him and the three others at his sides: the princess she was supposed to bring, a man with white hair wearing a big white coat, and a long-nosed man who had the body of a Greek God.

Usopp was frowning as well, all according to plan, but his was more real than the others who were playing prisoner. _Nami, you were all set to come along until you heard about the gold in that cave. I hope this doesn't backfire while we are separated..._ The muscular man deep in thought walked right through the open gates, his hands tied behind his back as he did. Robin walked behind him, smiling casually as she walked her prisoners through the gates and between the Heartless who came out of the ground on either side of her.

The further into the courtyard they walked, the more Heartless that appeared around them on either side of the path. "Thought you said most of them were at that cave," Smoker grumbled loud enough for the woman behind him to hear. She did not respond to him, and he got a little pissed, but figured someone might be watching them which is why she was staying quiet. He grumbled to himself some more but continued to walk towards the doors of the giant white palace itself.

The building was grand, with large domes at the top, many adorned in gold. Compared to the run down slums they were just in, this place was at the far opposite end of the spectrum. "Wow," Usopp whispered as they walked inside, looking around at all the magnificent paintings, statues, and shiny things around the grand hall they entered.

"Upstairs," Robin said in her usual voice, walking forward again and ushering the group to move forward as well. There was a grand staircase before them leading up to more rooms of this palace, other courtyards, kitchens, bathrooms, it was a massive place. The group walked up together until they reached a set of tall double doors. The doors were opened and the four people who knew this was where Robin was leading them walked in, a few of them gulping as they did.

Far in front of them, on the other side of the mainly empty dining hall, were the two sinister figures they met on the streets of Agrabah. The two of them were talking to each other while holding their staves, neither one looking all too worried. As they walked closer to them, their naturally loud voices echoed around the room and they began to be able to hear the evil figures' voices. "...and this girl, you say she may be important?" Jafar's voice was speaking, but Maleficent spoke up right after.

"It was not I who claimed her importance, but Zoro," Maleficent continued. Usopp's eyes narrowed while Smoker's widened. The older man looked at the pirate with a long nose who spent three years on a different world, and it looked like this was not the first time Usopp was hearing of the Pirate Hunter. Maleficent continued loudly, "He claimed to have recognized the girl from his own world, unfortunately, the Heartless had already taken her heart by the time he got to her."

_Roronoa Zoro? His own world? Who could that be?_ Smoker thought as he was overwhelmed by this new information.

"Hahaha," Jafar laughed, sensing the sarcasm hidden in Maleficent's voice as she pretended to pity the green haired man. "Oh look," he nodded his head over at his side and the two of them turned to look down the grand hall where five figures were approaching them. "Did I not promise a princess?" he asked, grinning over as Jasmine glared at him.

Jafar grinned even more as he saw Aladdin as well, "Ah, the street rat. What did you think you would accomplish by whisking away the princess? Did you believe she would fall in love with you? You? A pathetic thief!" Jafar started laughing again.

"Jafar! I won't let you take Jasmine!" Aladdin shouted over at the guy with menacing facial hair. His words felt empty without any way to support his claim though.

"Of course you will," Jafar replied, smiling as he walked towards them. He looked at Robin who stood between the two prisoners in the middle of the group, Aladdin and the Marine. "Why have you brought these other prisoners?"

"To present them to you," Robin replied with a cunning smile.

Even the others in front of her believed her words as she spoke. However, Jafar frowned at the woman and said, "Is that all?" His skeptical voice made the others look on edge. "Are you sure, there is no deeper plan behind bringing them here?"

Upon these words, light flapping was heard and they looked to the shadows of the room where the red bird, Iago, flew out and landed on Jafar's left shoulder. "Squuaawwk! I saw ya' talkin' to those people like they was your friends," the bird accused, pointing a wing at her.

"Of course I did," Robin replied, still sounding calm despite the four people in front of her getting ready to attack. They all thought they were busted, but now they stopped and looked behind them where the black haired woman looked like she had planned for this. "And I also know you saw me there Iago, but thank you for reporting before I returned." Her cool steady voice made the small bird feel even smaller and start sweating at the look in her eyes.

Jafar and the menacing woman a few steps behind him were looking over at the thin woman with black hair carefully though. Robin continued casually, "They would have come to find you anyway, so I tied half of them up and sent the others right into your clutches. By now, I am sure they have already met with your Heartless army-"

"Robin don't!" Usopp shouted.

"At the Cave of Wonders," Robin finished.

"I knew it!" Aladdin shouted, spinning around and glaring at the woman who he never trusted to start with. "You didn't show any guilt, any regret when you talked about those guards you helped kill. I knew we couldn't trust someone like that!" Aladdin's ropes fell from his wrists and Robin was mildly surprised as he pulled out a dagger he must have hidden. She made sure to stop the two bigger threats, but not him.

"Nico Robin," Smoker growled. He tried phasing into smoke to get out of his binds and attack her, but suddenly he was feeling very weak. "What the-" he started, then fell to his knees making everyone look over at him. He hunched over with his face towards the floor, and everyone saw two hands sticking out of his back holding a broken piece of steel against him.

"The Kairoseki from your jutte," Robin explained, while the sea stone drained his power. "I took it right after you put your weapons down in Aladdin-san's house."

"You, bitch," Smoker muttered, before falling down on his face and panting heavily.

"Robin," Usopp whispered, his voice seeming to reach all around the room. Jafar had started smirking as Robin proved to be more loyal than he thought, but at the sound of that man's voice, he leaned back a little in surprise. "Luffy trusted you," Usopp whispered, feeling ashamed as he spun around and faced her, "I trusted you!"

Robin's heart fell a little at the look of despair on Usopp's face as he looked at her, but she made no sign of it. "Then, that was the wrong decision," she stated, her eyes cold as she made eye contact with him.

Jafar snapped his fingers and Heartless appeared around Jasmine and Aladdin as Aladdin tried pulling her back the way they came. Heartless Bandits appeared, holding their swords and bouncing from one foot to the other as they surrounded the two of them. Smoker was down, they were captured, and Robin was on his side.

Usopp's long black hair shadowed over his eyes as he lowered them from Robin's gaze. "You're right," he told her, talking about his misplaced faith in her, "and I won't make that mistake again," he whispered, snapping his head up and looking at her with the eyes of an enemy. "HaaAAA!" Usopp yelled, and Robin's eyes went wide as he ripped straight through his tight restraints. The muscular man charged over at the group of Bandits surrounding Aladdin and Jasmine, but he froze as a black portal appeared in front of him. Out from it came the witch with pale skin, and a green staff that emitted an evil vibe from it. "Maleficent," Usopp growled. He was going for one of the swords from the Heartless creatures behind her, and to give Aladdin and Jasmine a chance to escape, but it looked like she was going to block his path through and through. The man got into a fighting stance without any sword, and he kind of wished he could back away from this scary-looking woman right now, _and use a slingshot on her..._ the thought came to his mind and he really did wish he had a long-ranged weapon at the moment.

_"All true heroes use swords or fists. Even the ones who knew how to use a bow were always more trained with melee weapons. Why?! You're saying the heroes from where you're from use ranged attacks? Hmm, well, I'm gonna teach you how to use a sword anyway. I got two words for ya' Captain Lazerblades: Heroes. Use. Swords."_ _Ever since Phil told me that, I worked harder than ever to train with a sword, and he was right. People went crazy when I defeated enemies in the Collosseum with a sword in my hand. But right now, I would be happy for just about any weapon._ Usopp gulped as the creepy woman in a black cloak lifted up her staff and slammed it down on the floor in front of her.

"You are going to fight?" Jafar asked, sounding surprised.

"You have other matters to attend to," Maleficent assured him. Jafar looked confused for a moment and she continued, "Those brats have proved more troublesome than we expected. Do not allow them to reach the Keyhole before you. If so, this world will never fall to darkness." She looked back at the man in front of her, "I will take care of Captain Lazerblades, and leave with the Princess."

Jafar nodded at her, "I look forward to our next meeting," he said, then motioned over at Robin to come to him. The woman walked right over without hesitation and stood at the man's side, though she did give the bird on his shoulder a menacing look that made it almost release its birdie bowels.

Aladdin was surrounded, but he looked over to see Jafar escaping. They needed to stop him, so he called out, "Genie! Help us!"

"Sorrry Al," a sad voice said even as the Genie appeared in the room. The large blue genie had golden braces on his hands that kept him bound to whoever held the lamp, and now that Aladdin looked over to where Genie was floating, he saw Nico Robin handing the lamp to Jafar. The evil new Sultan cackled at this stroke of fortune and praised the woman next to him as Aladdin shouted angrily at her wondering when she took the lamp.

"Robin," Usopp began, keeping his eyes focused on Maleficent as he spoke to the woman behind him now. She looked at his muscular back with the white sash going across it diagonally. "I will not forgive you for this," he continued, making Robin flinch next to Jafar, a stupid mistake she realized on the spot, but an unavoidable one as she saw him fade away. Darkness surrounded the two of them, and then they were gone.

"Jafar!" Aladdin shouted as he parried a Bandit's blade, then got slashed across the back. He spun and swiped at another behind him, but it leapt back to dodge, while three others dropped on top of him. "Hey, cut it out!" Aladdin was completely swarmed, as was Jasmine, and the Bandit Heartless grabbed them each under the shoulders and dragged them backwards.

"Usopp," Smoker growled up at the long-nosed man at his side. Nico Robin had put the piece of sea stone from his weapon into the binds holding his hands together before she left, so now it was pressed against his skin tightly and he couldn't get himself to stand up. "Get the Kairoseki out from my binds, and I will handle her."

The pirate glanced over at Smoker, then looked back to the woman in front of him. "There is no need," he assured. The pirate grinned at the woman, and if she was going to call him by it, then he was going to roll with it. "Because Captain Lazerblades is here!" He dropped out of his fighting stance, confusing the woman in front of him as he dropped down fast. Then, Maleficent, Smoker, Aladdin, Jasmine, and even some of the Heartless gained shocked expressions as Usopp slammed both fists down into the floor in front of him, and shattered the floor of the room.

Usopp and Maleficent dropped through the breaking floor, and then it spread out wide enough that Smoker fell with the rubble as well. Some Heartless fell down and were crushed on their way, but Aladdin and Jasmine stayed on the floor above as they were dragged far enough away that they avoided it.

Maleficent fell for a few seconds before stopping in midair and floating with a small veil of white around her. The debris disintegrated around her body or bounced off, and she shouted, "Enough!" Her voice made all the debris around her fly out to the sides of the hallway they fell into down below. She looked around for the man who dared break the floor beneath her feet, but all she saw was scattered debris and the groaning Marine captain lying on top of a piece of rubble down here. Her eyes caught something though at the last second and she looked down to see Usopp fly out from the debris beneath her, holding two swords from falling Heartless in his hands.

The swordsman swung with one of his blades, but the white veil was still on Maleficent and she did not look like she felt the attack at all. A huge chunk of ceiling that was lying on the floor lifted up beneath Maleficent's feet, and it lifted her back up to the room above, but Usopp chased right after her and slashed back and forth at the marble floor she was standing on.

Maleficent flew across the dining hall above full of nice chandeliers, long banquet tables, and lots of Heartless. Her rock that she was standing on was stronger than normal stone as it was also covered in a veil of light green, the same emanating from her magical staff. Usopp jumped backwards as the veil finally took enough damage and left the rock, and it fell to the floor where he was just standing. He got ready to charge back at her, but then saw the woman smirking pretty wide. "You truly think you have a chance," she said, the amusement in her voice not appreciated by the man in front of her. "Let me show you, a small piece of my power!"

Maleficent lifted up her arms and the entire banquet hall seemed to drop twenty degrees. It became dark almost immediately, with the lights swooshing out in one gust of wind, and only a little natural light filling the room. Aladdin and Jasmine watched in horror from across the room as Maleficent cackled madly. The wall behind her turned fully black, and then out of the wall came a giant rock the size of a small meteor.

Usopp's confidence from before vanished as he saw the huge black meteor too large to dodge. All he could do was raise the feeble swords of the fallen Heartless Bandits and try to block. His swords broke, but he managed to avoid most of the damage. When he looked back ahead of him though, he realized the woman wasn't summoning one meteor forward, she was calling a storm of meteors. Five more came out of different sections of the wall and flew across the hall where they vanished into another wall of darkness.

The long nosed pirate dodged left and right, then ducked under one of the attacks, only for a pillar of green fire to drop on him. He pushed through the flames, holding no weapons in his hands as he got closer to Maleficent. He had no plan, and he got hit by another meteor seeping darkness that sent him careening to his left, yelling out in pain. "AHH!"

Captain Smoker was in a hallway below the great banquet hall above him, but he did hear that last scream coming from the pirate. _Good, he was the strongest of Straw Hat's crew... No! He is one of my allies as it is right now, I should, go help him._ The thought came to his mind slowly, and it felt weird, but he did not feel guilty for thinking about helping a pirate at all. The Marine continued wiggling his hands. The woman Nico Robin tied them tight as to 'make it believable,' and his wrists were bleeding as he struggled hard enough to wiggle the piece of sea stone out from his restraints.

"There," he growled, phasing his hands out of the binds and getting back up to his feet. Smoker looked up and his legs turned into smoke, flying him up through the hole in the ceiling and landing him on the floor on one side of it. He was closer to the front of the hall, away from the prisoners being held in the back. He wanted to keep this battle away from the princess and her friend as possible. Once Smoker landed though, his growling expression shifted slowly to one of wide-eyed shock.

"Hahaha, HAHAHAHA!" Maleficent cackled as she held up the beaten, battered form of the man she was facing by his throat. A wall of green flames rose up behind her and giant twisting vines covered in thorns were on either side. She did not have a scratch on her, whereas Usopp's eyes were rolled back into his head, his body burned, electrocuted, slashed, bruised, and broken. "You were no match," she said, tossing him down on the floor. She shifted her gaze across the room towards the princess, but saw the Marine standing in her way, his eyes narrowed at her. "You wish to fight me now?" She questioned skeptically.

"What did you do to my world?" Smoker growled at her. He thought back to what the woman was talking about when he entered the room as a prisoner and shouted, "Who was the woman Roronoa Zoro found?"

"He did not say her name," Maleficent replied. "But she was a young thing, short black hair, glasses," the evil sorceress saw the widening eyes of the man before her and she started cackling. "A friend of yours?" she asked maliciously. "I am sorry to say, she is already gone."

Smoker's fists clenched as he glared across the room at her. "What do you mean?" he growled as menacingly as he could.

The woman started walking his way, not even giving him her entire attention as she walked on a course to go right past his left side. "Her heart has been taken by the Heartless. It is strange though that her body did not disappear," Maleficent realized she was mainly just talking to herself there, and didn't actually care to tell the man all of this. "But you need not know of her state-"

"She is my subordinate," Smoker snarled at her.

"Then she should be disposable," Maleficent replied with a wry smirk. That was the last straw, and Smoker flew forward with his fist pulled back. "Ahh," the witch released a breath of disappointment, "it always ends the same." Smoker's fist passed right through her, a look of surprise appearing on his face as usually that happened when people punched him. He landed behind the woman who vanished, and spun to see she had turned into a small ball of green fire, moving quickly across the room as a will-o-wisp with her voice still coming out of the flames.

Smoker saw where she was going, but as he took a step after her, a wall of green fire rose up in front of him almost all the way up to the ceiling. He did not see what was happening on the other side of the flames, but after a few seconds they lowered back down to the ground and simmered out. Across the room, Maleficent was gone, and so was Jasmine. Aladdin was on his knees, head down on the floor as the Heartless danced around him.

Smoker looked around the room, the destroyed room of the palace they were trying to take back for that princess. "We failed," he muttered, clenching his fists even tighter as he walked towards the hole in the floor and then flew right over it towards the Heartless around Aladdin. The group of them never stood a chance, but destroying a cluster of Heartless did little to ease the pit on anger and despair in Smoker's chest. _Tashigi, could you really be... No! I need to hold onto the idea that she is still alive. _Smoker's face hardened, _If I don't, I will lose my purpose for traveling these worlds. You better stay alive until I reach you Marine, just, stay alive._

* * *

"Whoa! What is that thing?!" Luffy shouted, his eyes glowing as he saw where they were about to land. The flying carpet carried them all the way out into the desert, and in front of them was a huge lion's head over fifty feet tall made of sand. Its expression was pretty scary too, making Nami shiver with fear from behind her captain.

"And you're sure there's treasure in there?" Nami asked the small monkey sitting on her captain's shoulder. Abu didn't respond to her, looking out over the sandy desert instead. "Cheer up," Nami told the little monkey who spun around to the orange haired girl behind it. "Our good friend Usopp is with Aladdin, you don't need to worry about him."

"Yeah," Luffy agreed with a big smile, "Usopp's gotten a whole lot stronger in the... last three years," he paused mid-sentence as it still felt weird every time he said it. What was only days for him turned out to be years for his nakama, something he thought deeply about every day. Suddenly the carpet touched down on the ground and everyone jumped off.

"What is this place?" Sora asked in amazement as he could see a glowing red light coming from the mouth of the giant sand head. Abu pointed over at it a few times, right at its mouth, and Nami's face turned blue as she realized what it wanted them to do. "Well," Sora said, looking behind him at Donald and Goofy, then at the two pirates with him and continued, "No time like the present." He marched towards the giant lion head, and then stopped and stumbled around as the entire desert started to shake.

"Oh, my, God," Nami whispered, lifting her head higher and higher up from the ground to look at the face of the sand lion they were walking towards. Its face was not just for aesthetics, the sand creature started moving and the sand in front of it dropped down into deep whirlpools. The red eyes of the creature started to glow, and then on the rims of its glowing eyes, and out of its open mouth, darkness started seeping out and up into the air above.

"That thing is a Heartless?!" Donald exclaimed as he ran up the wall of sand pulling him down. He jumped up over the ledge and looked at the giant mouth as the whole head lifted up, gulping at the sight of those sharp teeth inside.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said from behind the group. "Sure is a big one."

"It's not the only one here either!" Sora exclaimed, looking around as more of those Bandit Heartless were appearing.

"Then there's only one thing to do," Luffy said, stepping forward and punching his left fist into his open palm. "Fight!"


	15. Chapter 15

"This cave really is full of wonders," Sora commented as they continued walking around the massive cave full of golden statues, giant booby traps, trap doors, and hidden rooms. They'd defeated the Heartless lion guardian outside the cave, but inside was just as difficult if not more so because the swarms of Heartless kept coming out nonstop.

They rushed through another large doorway, and showed up in a room with a risen platform on their left where enemies awaited them, but in front of them was a puzzle that they could do to make it to the other side of a giant crevice in the middle of the room. Nami looked to her right and saw nothing but black for as far as she could see. She walked over to the edge and looked down, trying to see the bottom but the darkness was too thick.

"Let's try it!" Sora exclaimed, pointing at the blocks that pushed out of the wall every once in a while just far enough that they could be stepping stones to get across. "Just, don't fall down again Luffy." The two of them were already soaked, as the first time Luffy fell into one of the holes, they realized the bottoms were full of water. The farther down rooms were all darker too, and needed a lot of swimming, so Sora wound up dragging the rubber pirate who couldn't swim through most of them.

"Yeah," Luffy said, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish laugh.

"We mean it!" Donald shouted at the pirate who looked like he was having a good time. "We've got to find the King!"

"And close the Keyholes, hyuck" Goofy added, lifting up a finger.

"And find my friends," Sora agreed.

Luffy tilted his head back, "Huhh? You guys want to rush through this, we'll miss out on all the fun!"

"Luffy," Sora started, "we can have fun, while still rushing. I know you like to take your time enjoying everything, but we can't keep exploring every room. We need to get to the Keyhole fast, and then get on to the next world."

Luffy frowned. He liked to enjoy himself on each island he stopped at back on his world, but these guys wanted to rush everything along way too fast. "Hmph, you want to get over there fast? Then let's skip the puzzle," Luffy got an evil glint in his eye for a second and the others all went wide-eyed. "Gum Gum," he started, throwing his right arm across the room and grabbing a pillar next to a door on the other side. "Rocket!" he yelled, while at the same time wrapping his left arm around all the others.

"LU-" Nami started shouting, only to get her voice cut off as they were sent flying across the chamber.

The whole group of them landed in the next room down from the large dark hall, and everyone but Luffy sat down with dazed expressions for a minute. "Shishishishi," Luffy laughed, enjoying taking a faster path already. His jaw dropped though while he was laughing, the room becoming silent.

Nami regained her composure fast and jumped up, "Luffy you id-id-id," her mouth started moving up and down, no words able to come out anymore as she looked around her at the room they just entered. There were huge gems, large enough to make a fortune, being held by monkeys made entirely of gold. Abu ran up to one and rubbed the side of it, only for munny to rain down from the ceiling. "Gold," Nami whispered, then saw all the munny and had a sudden thought. _Munny can buy us things all over the worlds, but this gold, well, it's GOLD!_ She started drooling and she didn't even notice it.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy explored the room a little while Abu, Nami, and Luffy all tried to grab as much treasure as they could. After searching the place for something hidden that could give them an idea as to where they needed to go, Sora noticed a large pillar on one side of the wall that did not look like it belonged. He walked over to it and his Keyblade formed in his hand, "Ha! Raaa! Hi-ya!" He bashed back and forth, and the pillar shook, but he got nowhere with it.

"I've got this," Luffy said, standing up with a golden crown on his head, along with a shiny golden necklace that had a cross-like object on the bottom, only with a loop at the top. The ankh had a red gemstone in the center of the top loop of it, and it looked really cool which is why the pirate had it. He walked over towards Sora with his right arm lifted up, grabbing his bicep with his free hand. The pirate in the straw hat pulled back, and then slammed his fist forward, making the entire pillar shake even worse than when Sora hit it, but not break the giant pillar that stretched all the way up to the ceiling, and it looked like it went below the floor even, maybe down to the lower levels they'd already visited.

Sora lifted his eyebrows at Luffy, crossing his arms with a grin. "Oh you've got this huh?" the fourteen year old asked the pirate.

"Here, let me do it," Donald called out, making Sora and Luffy turn to see the duck walking forward and pulling the feathers up on his arms, almost like he was rolling up his sleeves. "Waawawawawa!" he quacked, sprinting forward and jumping straight into the pillar. This time, it didn't even shake, though it did make everyone laugh as Donald fell on his back with swirls over his eyes.

Luffy smiled, "I've got an idea," he said. The pirate lifted up his right thumb towards his mouth, and the others who were gathered around him ran away, just in time too as a giant fist puffed out of nowhere. Luffy bit down on his thumb, "Third Gear, Bone Balloon." He pumped his bones full of air and made them huge, then held his right arm back behind him. "Gum Gum," he began, and finished shouting, "Giganto Pistol!" smashing his fist into the pillar in front of them. He did it from up close, and his fist slammed into the hard stone for a few seconds, the pillar trembling against the pressure. Then, the pillar cracked, and more cracks formed right after.

The pirate pushed harder, yelling out as he did to follow through with his fist. His whole body started letting out air as he was done, and he spun around like mad in the treasure room before hitting the top of a pile of gold and bouncing down it to the bottom. His golden crown and necklace shrank along with his clothes, and the tiny pirate moaned as he got back up to his feet and looked forward.

"Nice one Luffy," Sora said, looking back at the pirate. He had to lift up his right hand to cover his mouth for a few seconds, but wound up bursting out in laughter anyway at the sight of the five inch tall pirate running towards them as fast as his tiny legs could take him.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Luffy shouted at him, his voice coming out ridiculously high-pitched in this small form. "I broke the wall! Ha!" he laughed, his squeaky voice still managing to make Sora frown at that one as he wasn't able to do that himself.

"Maybe there's more treasure in this room!" Nami exclaimed as the tall pillar broke outwards, showing there definitely was an opening behind it. She wanted to be the first one in, so she charged through while the pillar was still falling. Donald, Goofy, and Sora chased after her, while tiny Luffy tried to keep up, annoyed at the setback of his Third Gear form.

The five of them ran into the room behind the pillar and found it to be the largest room so far. Nami frowned upon seeing there was no gold in the room, but her eyes turned huge at the sight far ahead of her. She slowed down, letting the others run ahead of her as her mouth dropped and her eyes started shaking. She lifted up both hands to her mouth, and then screamed, "ROBIN!"

Robin stood a hundred feet in front of her, up a small flight of stairs leading to a huge blank wall. She turned around and looked at the group of five running towards them, before looking back at Jafar who held the lamp in his hand high. "Genie! For my first wish: Show me the Keyhole!"

"What? How did he get Aladdin's lamp?" Sora asked, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs with the other fighters. The blue Genie emerged from the lamp, and despite Luffy thinking it was really cool, he still couldn't smile as he glared ahead at the top of the stairs. Genie hesitantly pointed a finger at the blank wall, and then it was as if the outer wall vanished, revealing the enormous Keyhole behind it.

"Jafar!" Sora yelled up at the man, who was smiling victoriously now that he found the Keyhole. "We've come to stop you!" Sora lifted his hands and got into a fighting stance, making eye contact with the evil man who turned and looked at him.

Jafar cackled as he looked down at the fools facing him. He had his red parrot Iago on his right shoulder, and Nico Robin standing on his left side. Up above him floated the Genie, a creature he believed to be but a myth until only recently. "You? This world is under my command. The Heartless are under my command. Even the Genie is now under my command. What can you possibly do to stop me?!"

"We're gonna kick your ass!" Luffy yelled, turning back into his normal size and punching his right fist into his open left palm. The pirate glared up at the power hungry Sultan with furious expression, and Jafar actually felt a little nervous.

Then, Jafar had a great idea, "Genie," he began, making the reluctant Genie look down at him. "For my second wish, take care of these fools for me!" He laughed loudly as the Genie went wide-eyed and tried pulling back, but got tugged towards the others anyway.

"I'm sorry about this you guys," Genie shouted, hoping it would make a difference as he floated down towards Aladdin's friends.

"Robin!" Nami shouted up at the quiet woman again. "What are you doing with Jafar?! Weren't you supposed to take care of him at the palace? What happened to Usopp and the others?!"

Jafar laughed even harder at this, making Nami's eyes widen even more while Robin just stayed silent. "She had you fooled the entire time," Jafar yelled down, his voice condescending. "My apprentice delivered more than what she promised, and she will be rewarded for it." He continued shouting while Robin turned her head a little towards him, "Now she will get the reward of watching all of you die!"

Luffy was frowning deeply as he jumped backwards away from the Genie's large blue fist. His fist hit the ground where they just were, and turned it into a small grassy area full of flowers. He lifted up his other hand, and it turned into a blue hammer to slam down at the good guys, while shouting at the same time he didn't want to do this. "Robin wouldn't," he whispered, not loud enough for anyone in the room to hear him. "She wouldn't consider that a reward!" Luffy growled, snapping his head up and glaring across the room at the cackling man. "Gum Gum," he started, throwing his right leg back, "Stamp!"

Jafar got a foot straight to his face, and was thrown backwards. The evil Sultan got up with a furious expression on his face and charged down the stairs, slamming down his staff at the bottom and creating Heartless Bandits to attack his enemies as well. The Genie he told to fight them was incredibly strong, and all of the heroes' attacks did nothing to hurt it, but it was holding back on its punches, trying to resist hurting these people while its restraints forced it forward. The Heartless soldiers battled against the four strong fighters while Nami stood aside and stared straight up at Robin who watched the fight the whole time.

Sora charged at Jafar, but the tall man blocked the boy's first swing with his Keyblade, then knocked him backwards with the top of his staff. "Alright," Sora said, getting back up to his feet and healing himself so he was at full strength. "How about you try this," he yelled, and his entire body burst out with bright light.

Robin stared down at the floor below where this boy who back on his island fought with a wooden sword like a child, started sprinting forward at incredible speeds and slamming his strange weapons into Jafar hard enough to lift the grown man off the ground and knock him backwards. He finished his combo and the final swipe from the boy now dressed in all red sent a flying slash across the room that collided with a recovering Jafar. Meanwhile, Luffy had pumped his legs down to make steam come out of his body, and was now racing around dodging Genie's attacks at high speed, while destroying the Heartless below in one strike each.

"I can't believe we let you in our crew," Nami growled up at the older woman, who looked back down at her. "I- you tricked me into trusting you with jewels, but, I never should have fallen for it. At any time during those weeks we spent together, you could have killed me. And you would not have felt any remorse for it, would you?" Nami's words fell on deaf ears, as Robin said nothing in reply. "Answer me Robin! Did we really mean nothing to you?! You were supposed to be our nakama!"

Around the room, more Heartless formed, but Sora turned and battled the whole lot of them, while Luffy rushed in and rescued Goofy from the apologetic Genie who was about to hit him. Nami got rushed by two dark creatures, and she lifted up her wooden pole to try and fight them, but got pushed back quickly by their strength. "Damn it, Robin!" she yelled.

Jafar was stumbling his way back up the stairs, and he had to use his staff to help him get up. That boy's strange power that let him power up to this newfound strength was beyond what he thought the young Keybearer capable of. Sora's Valor Form was wearing off as he reached the top of the stairs, but the damage had already been done. Jafar was wounded, the Heartless were being destroyed, and Genie was still being ineffective against the warriors.

"Damn it," Jafar growled, reaching back behind him for the lamp again. "Having to make my third wish so soon," he muttered, wanting to save it for later.

"Allow me," Robin offered from behind Jafar. He heard her voice and looked back to see the woman walking forward smiling just a little as she did. Nami's eyes widened at the sight of Robin walking closer, and Sora gripped his Keyblades tighter, grinding his teeth as he didn't want to fight the woman who was nice to him back on his island.

"Ahh yes," Jafar said, finding the way out he was looking for. "Dear Robin, I definitely made the right decision when I chose you to be my apprentice." He looked forward and pointed down at all his enemies, "Now! Dispose of these fools at onc-" Jafar stopped, Genie and Luffy stopped, the steam stopped coming off of Luffy's body at that moment too.

Donald and Goofy shared completely confused looks, while Nami just stared dumbstruck at the sight in front of her. Luffy however, started smirking and then smiled outright from ear to ear. _I knew it!_

Robin stood directly behind Jafar, with a knife plunged into his back. His mouth had frozen mid-order, and he twisted his head around a little to look at the woman, but she had her hair shadowing over her eyes as she held the blade in his back. "No," she stated, releasing the blade and allowing Jafar to fall to his knees. The evil man reached behind him for the lamp, but Robin crossed her arms and two hands appeared out of Jafar's back, grabbing the lamp and tossing it to her.

Sora smiled wide, finally realizing what was going on. "It's over Jafar!" Sora shouted triumphantly. His red clothes turned back to normal but he didn't care, he didn't need Valor Form anymore; they had already won.

The man on his knees was shaking violently. Genie stopped fighting completely now that the lamp was no longer in Jafar's hands. Everyone looked over at Robin with smiles, and she looked back at them, lowering her own for a second, "I am sor-"

"Hehehe, HEHEHE!" Jafar's voice started echoing around the room, sounding like the man had snapped from the tone of it. "Raaa!" Jafar snapped his head up and his eyes were black, darkness seeping out of them as he did. Everyone panicked, but they were too slow as two eight-foot tall black demonic forms holding swords ripped out of the ground on either side of Robin and grabbed her by the arms.

Robin's eyes widened as their grips were tight, and they dragged her towards Jafar quickly. "Robin!" Luffy shouted from across the room, starting to sprint over as fast as he could. He was a little tired though after using Gear Second twice since arriving on this world, and Gear Third took it out of him as well. He wasn't running as fast as the Disney creatures and Sora who ran up the stairs towards the evil beings attacking Robin. Nami couldn't move as she stared at the demonic forms that were like no Heartless she had ever seen before. Their entire bodies were black, but they stood on two legs, with two arms, and each held a giant sword with relative ease.

Robin squirmed and tried to let go, even creating a few limbs on the creatures' faces trying to snap their heads back, but they were too strong for her. Her struggles stopped as Jafar stood up right in front of her. "So this is what Maleficent warned me about?" he asked in a dark, creepy tone. "This power has taken over, but I know how I can fix it," the man with empty black eyes reached his free hand forward and snatched the lamp from Robin's hand.

"No don't!" Sora yelled, as the man brought back his staff. He was too late though and Jafar slammed it into Robin's face and sent the woman sprawling backwards with blood coming out of her mouth. "Robin!" Sora yelled, diving towards the woman falling out of the air. He caught her and fell beneath her to soften her landing, but rolled down the rest of the stairs anyway. When he got up, he looked up top to see Donald and Goofy trying to get past the two tall Heartless demons, but while they tried attacking, the monsters became invisible, little wisps of them all that remained zipping through the sky. After a few seconds, the wisps formed in spots right above the two Disney creatures' heads, and slammed their swords right down on them, knocking them down the stairs towards the others and Luffy who just arrived.

Jafar laughed down at them with the two demon forms at his side, his red parrot squawking like mad above his head, and the blue Genie now making its way back over. "Genie!" Jafar yelled, looking down at his enemies, "Genie! For my final wish! I want you to make me, an all-powerful Genie!"

Everyone gawked as Genie covered his eyes with one hand, then pointed a finger with the other hand at Jafar. Some bright lights zapped out of his finger, and then bing, bam, boom! Jafar's body started to get bigger and bigger, making his opponents step farther and farther away from him. His little demons vanished, only little because his body had turned red, muscular, and a hundred feet tall. His lower body lost all human form and became one long tail that got narrowed closer to the bottom.

The floor in the room started to crack, as the heroes made their ways as far out as they could. Luffy reached for Robin, but those two Invisible Heartless reappeared right on top of her, one swatting away his hand and the other grabbing her. "Robin!" he and Nami shouted, but Goofy and Donald pulled them backwards as the floor they were trying to get back on was crumbling away.

"Hahaha! HAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAAAAaaa!" Jafar's maniacal laugh grew quieter as he lowered down into the giant hole on the floor. He went down and down until he reached the bottom, and everything finally stopped shaking so bad. Sora, Luffy, and the others stepped up to the ledge and looked down, to see another room far below, hundreds of feet down in the cave. In this hidden room, most of the floor was full of bubbling lava, and Jafar emerged from the lava, his body even bigger than before as he sat in it.

"What are we going to do?" Sora wondered aloud.

"We should close the Keyhole and get out of here!" Donald exclaimed.

Nami looked over at them, and her eyes were sad as she whispered, "But, they have Robin."

"Who cares?" a voice asked from behind them. The group spun around, Luffy and Nami looking furious as they did. Standing behind them was Aladdin, with Smoker standing to his left, holding an unconscious muscular figure on his shoulder. Aladdin didn't care about the cold looks the pirates were giving him, and he continued, "She left us alone with that witch, and she took Jasmine!"

Aladdin's eyes were full of anger and sadness which made Luffy and Nami lighten their glares. He continued in a rage, "She tied us up, and handed us right over-"

"That was the plan-" Nami began.

"But then she stayed on their side! She was supposed to get behind Jafar and take him down, but instead she took down Smoker, and let us get surrounded!" Everyone was shocked she managed to take down Smoker, but from the ashamed look that appeared on the tssking Marine's face, it showed Aladdin was telling the truth.

"But, but," Sora started confusedly, looking around at everyone. "But she just turned on Jafar. We saw her stab him in the back..."

"For the same reason she stabbed us in the back," Smoker interjected, "because it was convenient for her at the time. Give her another chance, and she'll do the same thing all over again." The white haired Marine looked to the back of the room, across from the giant hole with lava all the way at the bottom. "If you close that Keyhole, what do you think will happen to this place?"

Sora stayed quiet for a few seconds, then whispered, "I don't know."

"What if it makes this place come down on itself?" Nami asked, looking around in a panic. "This place is unsturdy enough as it is, and we're deep underground. Even if we manage to escape, what about Robin-"

"Exactly," Aladdin said, "we can trap Jafar down here as well." He received a shocked look from Nami, but continued while lifting his hands for emphasis, "We saw the wish he just made too! What could any of you do against an all-powerful Genie?"

Luffy wanted to shout 'punch it,' but he just tried that with their friendly Genie, and that did not work out well for him. None of his attacks could do any damage, and he doubted they would start now just because he wanted them to more.

Donald looked at Sora and whispered, "We came to close to Keyhole Sora. We've gotta save this world."

"I know, but," Sora looked over at the giant Keyhole, waiting for him to close it. His face calmed down though, and his expression became serious, "But we are not done with this world yet. I want to go save Robin, and ask her why she did those things myself!" Sora turned, and as everyone shouted at him, the boy sprinted off the edge, diving head-first down into the huge pit full of lava.

_Why am I hesitating?!_ Luffy thought, almost hitting himself for not already being down there. "Geronimo!" he yelled, jumping in after Sora.

"After them Goofy!" Donald shouted, waddling fast to the edge and hopping off.

"Gawrsh, alright," Goofy leapt off, "Ooohhoooo hoo hoo hooo!" His voice became quieter as he dropped farther into the pit down to the room below.

Aladdin gripped his fists tightly, then ran over to the ledge as well. "Where are you going?" Smoker yelled over at the man who he carried all this way from Agrabah.

Aladdin paused at the ledge, then looked over his shoulder at them, "Jafar started all this. I'm going to make him pay." He turned and jumped off the side, falling down and down until he reached a small area of land above the lava pit below. Around him were the other fighters who already dropped, all staring straight ahead at the monster in front of them.

"HAHAAHAA! I knew you fools would not be able to resist," Jafar laughed at them. He crossed his arms, the giant muscular red genie with creepy black facial hair grinning at his prey. Lava shot up in pillars on either side of him and swirled around in the air.

Sora saw something out the corner of his eye though, "The lamp," he whispered. He saw Iago, the red parrot, flying around holding a new black lamp in its beak. "If we get it, we can send Jafar back in his lamp." Donald, Aladdin, and Goofy nodded with him, while Luffy cracked his knuckles.

"You do that," the pirate captain said, making the others look to him wondering what he was going to do in the meantime. They followed his gaze up above Jafar's head, where an unconscious Nico Robin floated helplessly. "I'm getting back my nakama," the rubberman stated.

Luffy took off like a missile to attack Jafar, and in the meantime the others all raced towards Iago. The sections of floor they were on kept lifting up and dropping back down, as if the lava below was lifting the platforms. Out of the walls all around them were waterfalls of lava, and blazing torches filled this lower room.

"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" an annoying squawking voice yelled out, as the parrot flying around down here flapped over a platform that was particularly high up. Sora made it up top of that platform first and jumped up, swinging right at the bird for a combo, but every one of his strikes seemed to bounced off of a light white forcefield that surrounded the bird. He could feel it weakening, ever so slightly, but he glared over at Jafar who was being smart by keeping that lamp protected.

Aladdin pointed up at the parrot as it flew over a section too low for them to jump up from it and swipe at the bird. "We have to get him down here somehow!"

"Aladdin watch out!" Sora yelled over at the man, running over and tackling him away right as a giant boulder of molten rock smashed down where Aladdin was just standing. Jafar laughed in the background, then rose a hand and swiped Luffy out of the air as the pirate got a little too close to his victory trophy. Luffy slammed down near them, and Sora started yelling something at him, but Luffy was already rocketing himself back at Jafar again.

Luffy reached up for Robin where the demons were holding her over Jafar's head. His arms got close, but Jafar did not even need to attack Luffy this time. Both of these demon-looking black Heartless were very powerful, and one of them flew backwards while holding onto Robin. The other flew towards Luffy and swung a sword into his face, knocking the pirate out of the air and down into the area below.

"Luffy be careful!" Sora shouted over at the pirate, while jumping up in the air over a huge ball of molten rock Jafar threw at him. He jumped too early however, and as he came down the rock crashed into the solid ground beneath him and exploded. Chunks of rock slammed into the boy and he flew to the side, yelling out in pain.

"Sora!" Goofy shouted, tossing him a potion.

A green light shimmered over Sora while he got up, and he felt health flowing through him. "Thanks!" the kid shouted, then continued running over to a platform that was rising up in the lava below them. He leapt up on the rising platform, then jumped up after getting on it. He lifted up high near the parrot flying around, and he slammed his Keyblade down on Iago's head. He swiped back and forth, but a white forcefield kept appearing every time he tried hitting the red parrot. Finally Sora dropped out of the air and Donald jumped up next to him with his wand lifted up, quacking loudly as he brought down a bolt of lightning at the parrot.

Iago squawked in fear and flapped away, even as the forcefield surrounded him and he stayed safe. "It's not enough!" Aladdin called over from where he was dodging Jafar's lava attacks. He dove to the right just as a pillar of lava flew over his head and the street rat felt the burns on his back. He did a roll and got back up to his feet, turning towards an insane-looking Jafar angrily. As he was looking, his eyes widened as Luffy, covered in steam, appeared back in front of Jafar's face.

Even Jafar looked a little surprised as Luffy clenched his teeth in extreme pain. _Gear Second puts too much strain on my body! But, ROBIN!_ Luffy's eyes darted to the demon Heartless flying behind Jafar's head and he punched a fist out towards it. This time, the demon didn't back up fast enough and the fist hit it in the face. Luffy grinned through his clenched teeth, but he grimaced as his punch did not destroy the strong Heartless in one blow. Still, while his fist was out there, he grabbed onto the shirt of the woman in the demon's hand, and when he snapped it back, Robin came flying with his hand.

"I don't think so, not after that woman stabbed me in the back," Jafar roared. His huge red form lifted up both arms to his sides and pillars of lava rose up in the air. Luffy's eyes widened and he spun around, right before Jafar slammed the lava down into him. He held Robin in his arms tight to protect her, even as he screamed out in pain from the lava burning through his shirt and his back. Now there was a different reason why his skin was steaming other that Gear 2.

Luffy dropped out of the air, and the two tall dark Heartless came flying at him from opposite directions of each other. As one of them was about to slam its sword into him, the air around it sparked, and then flames ignited and burned all around the creature. The monster coming from the other side was almost there, but stopped and looked up right as a loud, "Hyuck!" was shouted. Goofy came down with his shield pointed down, having jumped off a platform higher up that the one Luffy landed on. His shield bashed straight into the demon's head and slammed it down into the floor, continuing to push down as he descended with it until he had it pinned between his shield and the floor, which shattered it into dark shards. The one surrounded by flames moved out of the fire, but got slammed in the face by the wand that created the flames in the first place, and exploded into dark fragments itself.

"GRRRR," Jafar growled, his voice making the walls of this underground room shake. Even the people still up above felt the floor and walls all around them shake as Jafar's growl echoed through the Cave of Wonders. The red genie looked down where his two Heartless were destroyed and he roared, "If you want something done…" he rose up both arms and held an enormous molten rock that looked like a small meteor in his hands. It was easily the size of the platform Luffy, Robin, Goofy, and Donald were on, and they wouldn't be able to dodge it fast enough.

Luffy moaned and looked up, rolling off of Robin and trying to get to his feet. He had blood coming out of his mouth and nostrils, and his eyes looked droopy as he was thoroughly exhausted. They opened a little wider at the sounds of Donald and Goofy's panicked screams, and at the sight of the huge mass of molten rock about to get slammed down at them.

"Hey Jafar!" a voice shouted a dozen yards to the left of Luffy and the others. They all looked over to see a raised up platform where Aladdin had the red parrot pinned to the ground, and another figure was standing closer to the edge where Jafar was floating over the lava. Jafar looked over and went wide-eyed at the sight of Sora smiling up at him, pointing a black lamp straight at him. "Back to your lamp!" Sora yelled at the genie who he now had power over.

An orange funnel of light shot out from the lamp and surrounded the bottom of Jafar's long red tail that made up his entire lower body. "WHA- AHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh," the giant genie started spinning around and around and around as he was funneled back into the lamp in Sora's hand. The orange swirling vortex got smaller and smaller and then 'Pop' it vanished back inside the lamp that Sora held victoriously over his head with a wide smile on his face.

The platforms all shook again and the lava kept pouring into the room from the holes in the side walls. "Hey Donald," Goofy began, "I think we should get out of here."

"You think you big palooka?" Donald asked, still a little sweat on the duck's feathery face from almost taking Jafar's huge attack there at the end. The court magician lifted up his wand and the platforms down floating over the lava became surrounded in little sparkling white lights. After a few seconds, all of them started lifting up in the air.

Sora turned to Aladdin and walked over to him. "Here," the boy stated, holding out the lamp. "Find somewhere to put him."

"Yeah," Aladdin agreed, taking the lamp from the younger boy. "I'll put him somewhere no one will ever release him."

The kid smiled, then turned and ran over to Goofy and Donald, but more importantly the two lying on the floor between them. "Luffy! Robin!" Sora dropped down next to his friends, and thought he had recovered enough magic power now to try something. "Cure!" he called out, raising up his Keyblade and letting green light shimmer down over the bloody pirate captain and his unconscious crew member.

As the platforms rose up near the top, Aladdin, Donald, and Goofy hopped up on the ledge of the large circular hole in the floor. Sora came walking over next, looking exhausted, but smiling nonetheless. The boy with spiky brown hair walked right past Nami, and Usopp who was sitting up now but looking totally beaten up. Both of them looked in a little as Sora walked past, and Smoker turned in next to look at the kid walk by him. Over near the stone platforms at the top of the hole, Robin stood up feeling dizzy, and Luffy looked pale but was able to get to his feet after Sora healed him.

Everyone looked over as Sora held up his right arm and a Keyblade reformed in it. The boy stood directly in front of the indented part of the wall that Jafar made disappear before. Behind that missing wall, was an ornate area with two pillars covered in strange designs that all had the shape of a Keyhole involved in it, but it was directly between these two pillars that a giant, ten foot tall, Keyhole-shape carving sat in the wall. In the middle of the carving was an actual Keyhole as if this was a doorway, and the outline of the hole glistened white light for a second. There did not look to be anything behind it, but Sora pointed his Keyblade at it anyway and his Keyblade began to glow. It shimmered and shook, and then a beam of white light shot from the tip of his Keyblade over to the hole where a bright orange light emitted from it and expanded out to get brighter and brighter. The entire ten-foot tall carving around the actual Keyhole started to glow and golden shards rained down like gold to fill up the entire indentation. A clunk noise that sounded like something locking came out from inside the light, and the light grew brighter and brighter, before vanishing completely. It left the Keyhole-shaped wall bare behind it, the actual Keyhole gone.

They all took a deep breath of relief as it seemed to finally be over, but then the ground started shaking beneath their feet.

"I knew it," Smoker growled. "We need to get out of here now," the Marine shouted.

"Carpet!" Aladdin shouted, and the flying carpet came out of nowhere. They all ran over to it while the walls and everything shook worse and worse. Rocks came loose from the walls and fell towards the group as they made their way to the carpet.

Luffy stumbled, almost falling to the ground, but two arms reached down and grabbed him. He looked up a little and saw Robin holding him up. She pulled him towards the flying carpet and handed him up to Sora, then hesitated as she looked at the carpet that was pretty packed in front of her. Her eyes darted around and she saw Aladdin glaring at her, harsher than both Smoker and Usopp, though both of them looked pissed as well.

"Get on!" Sora yelled at the woman, leaning off himself and grabbing onto her, before pulling her up on the carpet.

The carpet seemed to drop down a few feet with this many people on it, but as the building trembled around it, it knew it had to get moving. They flew up in the air, and they were moving very slow as they tried to escape down the corridors that the carpet took to reach them so fast. "Come on, go faster you dang carpet!" Donald exclaimed, ducking his head and covering it with his hands as a rock had just bonked him on the blue wizard hat he was wearing.

The monkey Abu had his hands covering his eyes, peeking through his fingers as the carpet swerved between falling rocks.

"What's weighing us down so much?!" Sora shouted as the carpet kept dipping.

"Maybe we should kick someone off," Smoker suggested, looking over at Robin with an angry glare, and bloody wrists from escaping her restraints that she used Sea Stone for.

"No," Luffy growled over at the Marine, protecting his nakama who had the doubtful looks of the three people who went with her to the palace.

Nami was looking around nervously as it seemed like they weren't going to make it, and finally when the orange haired woman saw a hole explode in the wall to her right, lava pouring out of it, she gave up. "Aghh!" she yelled, lifting up her shirt and making a few of the men look at her in shock. Their shock turned into even more shock as hundreds of gold coins rained out from under her clothing.

"How much did you take?!" Sora yelled with a laugh, watching as it seemed like the entire treasure room emptied out from under Nami's shirt.

The carpet sped up faster, and faster, and before they knew it they flew out of the sand lion's glowing mouth and up into the night sky. The whole lot of them let out a collective sigh of relief, then all at once, about half of them fell unconscious. It had been a long day.

* * *

Inside Aladdin's house, the entire group was gathered in the man's living room. Aladdin was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a sad look on his face, while everyone else sat in different spots around the room. Sora, Goofy, Donald, and Abu were sprawled out on the couch, while Usopp and Luffy lay on the floor, Usopp leaning up on the wall a little, while Luffy was still flat on his back unconscious. Nami sat on a chair across the room with a nervous look on her face as she saw the way Usopp and Smoker kept glaring at Robin, who was leaning against a side wall with her eyes closed.

"Why did you do it?" everyone looked over to Usopp who was the one to speak. He knew Robin was awake, and as he asked, her eyes opened up to look straight into his. "Why did you betray us?"

She stayed quiet. The black haired woman stared silently at Usopp for more than a few seconds. She had some speech ready to say that she had been thinking about, but the look in his eyes made her hesitate. _"I trusted you!"_ She remembered him shouting at her the day before, how betrayed he sounded as he told her he wouldn't make the mistake of trusting her again. _That's probably for the best. Staying close to me would only get them hurt._

"Answer the question Nico Robin," Smoker growled, the white haired Marine sounding really pissed. "Depending on your answer-"

"What?" Nami snapped over at the Marine, making him look to her now with his angry expression. She didn't back down as she yelled at him, "What do you plan on doing with her? Arresting her? And bringing her where?"

The Marine Captain snarled angrily as the younger woman yelled at him, but she was right. He had nowhere to bring the black haired woman even if he were to arrest her right here. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then snapped them open. "She helped with the overthrow of this wor-" he stopped himself as Aladdin was still in the room. "Of this _country's_ government. Whoever takes charge after finding out Jafar has been deposed, will be able to figure out a fit punishment for her."

Robin was staring to feel a little nervous. This world did not seem very forgiving, and she doubted any punishment would be less than death for her here.

"Why did you do it?" Usopp asked again, making Robin look back towards the muscular man. He was so much different than the skinny teenager she met on the Straw Hats' ship a few weeks earlier, or what had been three years for him. "Just answer the question. Did you plan on betraying us the whole time?"

"No," she stated, making Smoker grunt in disbelief, thinking she was just lying to them now. She continued, as to make her case to the others, "I believed we could take on Jafar on our own. However, Maleficent turned out to be in the room, and I deduced that we did not have a chance to beat her. If I had betrayed Jafar then, we would have lost the upper hand against him in the long run, all for nothing."

"You don't know that we couldn't have beaten them," Aladdin snapped, lifting up his head to look at the woman. She expected to see an angry look from him, but was surprised to see only sadness on it. "Not that I would have helped much anyway." He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, "Jasmine," he whispered longingly.

"Uh, Earth to Al? You still have one wish left!" The magical blue genie appeared behind Aladdin and swooped in front of him with an excited look on his face. "Look, just say the word. Ask me to find Jasmine for you."

Smoker's eyes widened as he heard this come from the Genie, as did most of the people in the room. The Marine thought, _If he could find Jasmine, then he could find Tashigi too. After this kid makes his wish, I'll take the lamp next and make my wish._

_We could find everyone else on the crew!_ Nami thought excitedly. _And with my final two wishes we could wish for more munny than there is in the whole universe!_

Aladdin lifted up his head a little, "I… I wish…" everyone looked closer, and then Aladdin turned to the blue genie getting ready to fulfill the wish. "For your freedom Genie."

"What?!" Nami and Smoker shouted at the same time.

Sora smiled and watched as Genie exclaimed, "Al!" The genie leaned backwards and yelled, "AOOOO!" Pink shards of light surrounded him and exploded off like fireworks, and finally when they stopped, the two golden shackles on Genie's wrists lit up bright, and then vanished.

"A deal's a deal Genie. I promised I would use my third wish for your freedom, and that's what I did." Aladdin said, smiling softly at his friend. "Now you can go anywhere you want. You're your own Master." Aladdin hesitated for a second, then continued, "But, if you can, it'd be great if you could go along with them and help Sora find Jasmine."

The genie whose blue tail-like lower body had turned into two legs turned away from his old Master. "Sorry Al, I'm done taking orders from others." He hesitated for a few seconds, then looked playfully over his shoulder, "But… A favor, that's entirely different." He grinned over at Sora who smiled bak at him. Genie continued, "I guess I could give that a try." He rushed over to Aladdin's side, "After all, we're pals right Al?"

"Genie," Aladdin said, in a way that showed he couldn't thank him enough for this.

"Just leave it to me!" Genie said, grinning wide and getting a smile out of Al too.

While Genie went over and talked to Sora about the Keyblade and being able to call on him if he wanted, Usopp got up to his feet and made for the hole in the wall. He was covered in cuts and bruises, even after a few healing spells from Donald and Sora. The man dropped down to the street outside and walked down the sandy road, a deep frown on his face. "Long-nose-san," a voice said from behind him, making him spin around to see Robin had followed him outside and was standing right there.

"Oh," he muttered, seeing the black haired woman there. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize," she stated, the same calm look on her face as she had from before. She took a deep breath before speaking, then continued, "I should have believed that you could take them both-"

"No," Usopp started, his voice low as he looked away from Robin. She paused and did not know what to say to that, but Usopp continued while looking away from her. "I know I told you I can't trust you anymore, but, but that was when I thought you had completely betrayed us." Her eyes opened wider, as he had been looking at her angrily even since they met back up. He turned around to face her and could see how confused she was, "You were right not to go with the original plan. I couldn't handle Maleficent," he admitted, a look of shame coming to his face as he did. "I fought her, and couldn't get any damage in. She, she was too strong. And after hearing what happened with Jafar, even after you stabbed him in the back…" he shook his head while looking down, "we never would have been able to take them both at the same time without Luffy."

Robin stayed quiet for a few seconds, and then added, "And Sora."

Usopp looked up in surprise, but then nodded his head as well. Robin walked towards him and made a small motion with her head down the street. He understood what she meant and started walking once she got to his side, and the two of them walked down the road together. "I was amazed that Sora became so strong in such a short time," she paused and glanced at the man on her right, "but I was more amazed about you."

"I know," he said, a small smile coming back to his face as he lifted up his muscular arms. As he thought back on the day before, he lowered his arms ashamedly, remembering how it didn't mean much when it came down to crunch time.

"Usopp-san," she started, stopping for a moment and turning to face him completely. The muscular man with tan skin and a white toga on turned to face her as well, and she had a small frown on her face. "That woman, Maleficent. I heard her mention Zoro's name."

Usopp grimaced deeply and looked back over his shoulder, checking if he was far enough away from Aladdin's house to be speaking about this, especially since he hadn't told Luffy yet. He looked back at Robin darkly and then moved the white sash covering most of his torso to the side. Her eyes widened at the sight of the huge scar on his chest, and then Usopp covered it back up just as quickly. "Zoro is not someone you want to run into. He's one of them."

"One of who?" Robin asked.

"An agent of darkness," the long-nosed man replied, scratching his stubble beard as he did. "I knew barely anything about them before Sora and the others showed back up on the world I was on."

"And that was after, three years of being apart?" she asked, wondering if she had gotten it right.

He nodded his head, then muttered, "It's been much longer than that for Zoro."

Robin shook her head, trying to take all of this in. _I rationalized everything that happened after Sora's island… got destroyed. But, this truly wasn't our world. We were scattered across worlds, some of us for longer than others._ Usopp opened his mouth to say something else to her, both both of them heard noises from behind them and looked back to see Sora, Donald, Goofy, Luffy, Smoker, and Nami coming out of the first floor of Aladdin's house, using the door instead of the hole on the second floor's wall. The long nosed muscular man decided to hold off on this conversation for a different time and the two of them walked back towards the others.

"How are you feeling Captain-san?" Robin asked as Luffy walked forward, his skin still a little pale, but looking better than earlier this morning.

"Meat," Luffy groaned. He looked around at the others, but no one had any food for him. "MEAT!"

Smoker growled, getting infuriated by the pirates all around him. Luffy's eyes slowly looked over towards Donald, and the duck's eyes widened at the saliva dripping down the sides of Luffy's mouth. "Where's Sanji when you need him?" Usopp muttered, laughing as Luffy started chasing the quacking duck around in circles.

"Let's get to the Gummi ship," Nami suggested loudly, sticking a hand out and slamming it into Luffy's face as he tried running past her to keep going after Donald. "Cid stocked up our fridge a lot after our last visit to Twilight Town, so we should have enough to feed this idiot."

"Yeah! So stop trying to eat me!" Donald yelled over, swinging his wand and calling down lightning at the pirate. A bolt of lightning crashed into Luffy, only for him to stand there and take it as if it didn't affect him at all.

"Oh," Nami muttered, having looked at the Captain in surprise for a few seconds but now figuring it out herself. "He's made of rubber, so I guess that won't work."

"Who knew?" Usopp questioned, shrugging his shoulder and laughing a little.

The entire crew made their way back out of Agrabah towards where they parked the Gummi Ship. Once they got inside, they all agreed to eat before lifting off, and they opened up the fridge and tried to make an orderly dinner, despite being in a ship that got more cramped with every world they went to. Donald looked around angrily and opened his beak to shout something, but then sighed and collapsed, starting to eat some food. In between bites of his cereal, Donald looked around, "We can't keep letting people on the Gummi Ship."

Most of the crew groaned hearing the duck bring this up again, but that only made Donald quack louder. "Meddling with other worlds is bad! It can have catastrophic consequences!"

"As long as they're people from our world," Sora brought up, "it seems like it's fine." He looked around and their crew consisted of only people from their world, and Donald and Goofy. "So we should be able to bring along Riku and Kairi when we find them too."

"An' Sa-ji, an' Cho-per -nd, Zoro!" Luffy mumbled between bites of his breakfast.

"Roronoa Zoro?" Smoker asked, turning to Luffy. "I hear he's with that witch."

Usopp dropped his jaw and some milk from his cereal splashed out. Nami's fork hesitated near her mouth, and Robin continued to eat casually, the only one not to overreact.

Luffy stopped eating for a second and turned to Smoker confusedly, "Huh? Where'd you hear that?"

"I heard her talking about it," he looked over at Usopp and Robin who were sitting next to each other. "They heard it too," he said, to back up his claim in case the pirate wouldn't believe him. Smoker was sitting closest to Donald and Goofy, the only two on the ship who weren't pirates so he didn't feel so shitty eating next to them. He took another bite of his food, while Luffy looked over to Usopp who tried to avert his gaze with a guilty look.

The pirate captain had food in his hands, ready to keep eating, but now that he saw Usopp's face he lowered down his food back to his plate. "Usopp? What did Smokey mean?" Smoker's forehead scrunched up in annoyance at the nickname, but he did not acknowledge the pirate and just continued to eat, though he did look at Usopp a little to see what the muscular pirate would say.

Usopp stayed silent for a few seconds, then looked Luffy straight in the eyes, "Zoro's with Maleficent." Sora and Luffy both gasped at this, and Usopp continued darkly, "He's evil."

* * *

"Aa, ahhh. That smarmy vizier could of had 'em…" Hades, the ruler of the Underworld, chuckled. He looked across the table, "If maybe someone had stuck around to give him a hand."

Maleficent stepped up closer to the table in the middle of the room that had an image showing Agrabah in the middle, repeating the final confrontation the Keybearers had with Jafar over and over. "Perhaps. However, the fool trusted an apprentice who so quickly betrayed him. Jafar was beyond help, consumed by his own hatred. One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely," she added, making an obvious remark to the blue flames on top of Hades head.

"Whoa whoa, whoa. Lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay?" He turned to his right, "By the way, kid. Have we got something special for you."

A boy with long silver hair spiked out behind his head walked up from the shadows. "Her?" Riku asked.

Riku looked across the table over to Maleficent who was turned away from him. He heard her speak, "We had a deal, yes?" On the table in front of Riku, a green circle glowed and an image appeared while Maleficent kept talking. "You help us, and we grant your wish…"

Above the green circle floated a holographic image of a girl with red hair and Riku leaned forward, "Kairi!"

"Go to her," Maleficent stated. "Your vessel is awaiting."

Riku turned hearing footsteps coming from behind him. Walking his way was a man in a red coat with a bunch of buttons on it. The guy had a strange black mustache that swirled up on the sides and he was messing with a point of it with his hook hand. Captain Hook glared at the young boy, "Just remember, this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage."

"Why are you doing all this for me?" Riku turned back to Maleficent. "What's the catch?" He had a skeptical look on his face that the woman could understand.

"Catch? What's the catch?" she turned around and walked over towards Riku, putting a smile on her wicked face. "Silly boy. You're like a son to me. I only want you to be happy." She brushed a hand along his cheek, but he slapped it away and jumped back.

"I seriously doubt that," he muttered.

"Believe what you wish," Maleficent stated. "But lest we forget, I kept my end of the bargain."

The two of them looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, then Riku turned around and walked away. She watched him go and waited for him and Hook to leave the room before losing the fake smile on her face.

Hades started laughing from over at the table he leaned on. "You really expected him to believe all that 'Mommy loves you' crap? Kid doesn't seem that stupid."

"No, he is not," Maleficent admitted.

The blue-skinned man with flames coming off the top of his head looked at Maleficent oddly. "I gotta ask, what's the deal with helping the kid? Thought he was going to help us get the princesses, but the vizier got us the last one on his own."

"Princess Jasmine was not the _last_ princess," the witch began, looking out towards the door that Riku just left. "Soon, that boy will realize he has a bigger part to play if he wants to save the girl." Maleficent looked back at the table where Kairi's holographic image lay, her eyes closed as she floated there above the table. "The only problem, are the Keybearers," Maleficent snapped, and the hologram started showing the battle against Jafar again, with that pirate who could move extremely fast, and the boy who could wield two Keyblades in his special form.

"Whoa whoa!" Hades laughed. "You really think those brats are going to be a problem?"

"Yes," Maleficent stated, narrowing her eyes at the images playing before her.

"Then, why don't you send _him_ after them?" Hades suggested, grinning menacingly as he did.

She hesitated a moment before responding. "Zoro must protect the final Keyhole for now. King Mickey has left his castle. As he is not with the Keybearers, we do not know where he is. We must be careful." She snapped her fingers and the images over the table changed, "In the meantime, we must find some other way to distract our _heroes._" The two of them looked at the monster on the screen and Maleficent looked up at Hades, "Do you think you can arrange this?"

Hades laughed and tilted his head back, his blue flames burning bright. "No sweat."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N Sorry for another long break, but I was in Europe for a few weeks so I couldn't post any chapters. I did however, start up on a new world and boy is it a fun one. Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 16:**

"Luffy just listen for a minute," Usopp groaned.

The captain of their pirate crew leaned back in his seat with his fingers in his ears. "Lalalala!"

"Not listening isn't going to make it not true," Usopp shouted at his Captain. "Zoro's turned!"

"Hey Luffy, maybe we should listen to Usopp for a minute," Sora suggested, totally confused at why Usopp would be saying this.

Luffy turned to Usopp and yelled, "Zoro is scary, but he's not a bad guy!"

"He isn't the same man you remember-" Usopp began, but Luffy started shouting over him again.

"This is ridiculous," Smoker growled. He leaned back in his own chair and reached for a cigar on his coat. As he reached though, his hand stopped and he remembered what Nami told him the last time they took one of these rides. None of the others wanted to have to breathe in the smoke the entire trip, and he grunted but lowered his arm back to his side.

While the pirates argued, Donald got the ship ready for liftoff. Robin was watching the duck court magician closely to see how this vehicle ran that would be taking her to another world. She was still listening to the others in the ship though and wondered herself what could have happened to Zoro.

"Luffy listen to him!"

"I know it's hard to believe-"

"LALALA!"

"Gawrsh Luffy, you really don't seem to want to know huh?" Goofy asked out of nowhere from his own seat up front next to Donald's.

Everyone stopped yelling at each other and looked up to the front where the tall anthropomorphic dog was. Goofy looked straight at Luffy, and despite the pirate's screaming, he had heard the dog over it. The rubber pirate in a red shirt slowly took his fingers out of his ears. He stared at Goofy for a few seconds, then looked back at the others in the ship with him.

Nami and Usopp looked into their captain's eyes. Each of them dropped their annoyed looks at the desperate expression on his face. Luffy was staring at Usopp, and he kept opening his mouth, then closing it a second later. _No! Usopp, Usopp was the only one who... He had to be!_ Luffy clenched his fists angrily and he nodded his head at the long-nosed man, motioning for him to continue.

Usopp nodded back, and spoke up quieter than before. "When we all got separated, Zoro got sent much farther back than you did. He got sent back, much farther than I did."

"Sent back?" Robin spoke up from a little further up in the ship. Donald finally lifted them off the sand so she looked back now completely focused on the conversation.

Usopp nodded his head. "I figure," he began, "since everyone else seems to have come out at the same time, then this is probably right after Sora's island was... destroyed." He said it after hesitating and saw Sora wince at the memory of it. "Which means," he continued, "Zoro and I were sent back in time. I'm not sure about it, so don't quote me on it, but I think Maleficent had something to do with our separation from the rest of you."

"How can you be so sure we didn't just take longer to get to the worlds we landed on?" Nami asked him.

"The Heartless," Usopp replied. "Only recently did they start showing back up again in force. I thought it was weird at first, but when you all showed up at the Coliseum, I started putting things together. Not just there, but it seems like things are starting to move fast on every world. Clayton, and Jafar, and what Zoro did to Plankton..."

"What?" Luffy asked, making Usopp stop for a second. The long nosed man and Nami each tensed up a little and looked at the rubberman. Luffy looked really confused, but he slowly whispered, "Zoro, was in, Bikini Bottom?"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all jumped in surprise and spun as well. Sora looked the most surprised, "If he was there, then why didn't he come over to us?"

"You don't seem to understand," Usopp muttered, shaking his head sadly for a few seconds. "The first time I saw Zoro, it was over two years ago. Even then, he already looked like he'd been gone for at least three years."

Smoker's bottom lip lowered from his seat in the back of the ship. _Could Tashigi have been gone that long? No. That witch said Zoro just found her. That only backs up Usopp's time travel idea more then, if she just showed up... I can't believe I just accepted time travel to be real._ The Marine really wanted to light up a cigar now to ease his nerves, but the fact he couldn't was killing him.

"Zoro's old?" Luffy whispered. He sounded like he was in shock. He prepared himself to listen to Usopp, because he knew the only reason he wasn't listening was because he didn't want to hear the hard truth. Still, the age gap between them jumped so far in just a week. "But, why is, why is he with Maleficent?" Luffy wondered, sounding so confused. "Why did you say he was a bad guy?"

Usopp knew it was going to hurt his captain, but he couldn't shield it from Luffy forever. "He waited for you," Usopp began in a sad tone. "But, I guess he got tired of waiting. He joined with them. He's already strong, but with the darkness on his side," the sniper shook his head, "he's unstoppable."

"Just because he's with Maleficent," Luffy started angrily. "That doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Riku's with her too! Maybe he just-"

"Luffy!" Usopp yelled at the unbelieving captain. He grabbed the white sash tight and pulled it to the side, revealing the long scar across his torso. He didn't need to say a word, the action was enough.

Sora clenched his fists tight. "Zoro," he whispered, his voice sounding angry. He suddenly realized something and his eyes opened wide while looking at Usopp. "Back in Agrabah, the associate Jafar mentioned who paid you a visit." Usopp looked his way and nodded, making the child all the more angry.

Luffy wouldn't take his eyes off of the scar on Usopp's chest until it had properly registered in his mind. He remembered Jafar talking about someone cutting Usopp down as well, and now he understood. _Zoro, you hurt Usopp. You... I don't want to believe it. I need to find you._

"Hey!" A high-pitched voice squawked at them from the front of the ship. Everyone looked ahead to see Donald flying them up into space. He was getting ready to get into gear, but he called out, "Where are we going?"

"To the next world, right?" Sora asked, looking around at the others. As he did, he saw a lot of them looking down and to the side ashamed. "What is it?"

"It's just," Nami began nervously.

"We got our butts kicked," Usopp stated plainly. "I got my butt kicked," he corrected, thinking about his one on one fight with Maleficent.

Smoker growled, but he thought back on trying to stop Maleficent, and she slipped right through his fingers. After seeing what happened to Usopp, who looked like a muscular god, he didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing he didn't catch her. "He's right," the oldest man on the ship growled. They looked over at Smoker and were stunned to hear him say, "We need to be stronger next time."

"If me and Luffy were there it would have been okay," Sora assured the other two older men who both looked at him skeptically. Sora saw no reassuring looks from them, so he turned to Luffy, "You think we could have beaten her right?"

Luffy opened his mouth and lifted up a hand to fist pump and shout 'yeah!' When he lifted his arm though, his shoulder screamed out in pain like his muscles were ripping apart and he dropped his arm back down with a look of excruciating pain on her face.

"Luffy!" Nami exclaimed. "It's that Gear Second thing!" She yelled at him while she sat him down on a chair. "You have to stop using it!"

"No," Luffy muttered. He thought about his fight with Jafar and how only with Gear Second did he manage to get Robin back, and even then, he couldn't stop Jafar. "I just need, to practice it."

"Ahem!" Donald cleared his throat again loudly as they were having a conversation and not deciding on a destination.

"How about we go to the Coliseum then?!" Sora suggested excitedly. They all looked over at the kid with spiky brown hair and he looked very pumped. "There's a tournament being held there right?" He asked, looking back at the front of the ship.

The screen in front of Donald on the ship's dashboard turned on. On the screen was an image of two chipmunks, and they saluted the heroes upon seeing them on the other side of the monitor. "That's right Sora," the chipmunk named Chip called out.

"I hear this one's going to be tougher than the last one," Chip's brother, Dale, shouted on top of his brother's comment. "Better bring your A game."

"Coliseum?" Smoker asked from the back of the large ship, far from the dashboard. "You keep mentioning it but-"

"It's the world I was on," Usopp said, talking to the man in the seat behind him. He strapped himself in and nodded his head with a smile on his face. "I can't wait to see Herc and Phil again. I'm down for some training."

"Great! It's settled then," Sora shouted. He looked around to see if anyone was against it, but they all just nodded at him. "Alright!"

Luffy nodded when Sora looked his way, but the reason he stayed quiet unlike his usual self wasn't because of his physical pain. While everyone strapped in and got ready for Donald to fly them through space, Luffy's eyes darkened. _Zoro..._

* * *

"Well that wasn't very hard," Sora stated. He dropped out of his fighting stance, both of the Keyblades vanished, and his red Valor Form clothes turned back to normal.

"I'll say," Usopp agreed, rolling his right shoulder around in its socket a few times. Besides a little stiffness from getting hit off that last parry that Leon managed to beat him on, he didn't feel any worse for wear.

"Heal," Luffy said, lifting up his Keyblade. He waited a few seconds, then waved it around a little and called out again, "Heal!"

"Luffy you idiot, you used all of your magic shooting fireballs at Yuffie," Donald scolded the much less talented magician.

The rubber pirate stopped pointing his not-working Keyblade at Usopp and grumbled in annoyance at the scolding from a duck in a blue hat.

"You swept the floor with the whole bracket! Just what I'd expect Captain Lazerblades," Phil said as he walked up to his old student. Usopp smiled at the pink goat man and thanked him for his teaching over the years. Phil looked behind him and laughed, "Guess I'll go help those guys out."

Leon and Yuffie finished groaning on the floor as Phil finally gave the losers some potions to patch them up. The two competitors who met Sora and Luffy's group in the finals walked over to them. "Great job guys," Yuffie told the boys she walked up to.

Sora scratched the back of his head and grinned at the ninja girl. "You've gotten a lot stronger Sora," a deeper voice said and Sora turned to see Leon nodding at him. This praise really made the kid beam, but Leon continued, "Don't get cocky though."

"Huh, oh yeah." Sora agreed, putting both arms behind his head and leaning back. "I've got to keep it up if I want to stop Maleficent."

"Good," Leon said, glad Sora was taking this seriously. He looked over the kid's shoulders and back towards the bleachers where the two women were. "You got yourself a new comrade?" Leon asked, turning now to Donald. "Thought you said-"

"QUUAACK!" Donald yelled at him in annoyance. "They won't listen to me!"

"Haha, Robin's another member of my crew," Luffy stated, smiling back behind him where the woman was sitting on the bleachers. "I'm gonna find them all."

Usopp looked at Luffy grimly, but the pirate captain seemed dead-set on finding Zoro too. _I just hope he doesn't find us first._

"So what do we do now?" A voice said from behind the group talking to Leon and Yuffie. They all turned around to see the buff Marine wearing a new pair of clothes he got nearby. His old ones were pretty destroyed, and though it felt strange getting rid of his Marine uniform, there wasn't much left of it after the last few worlds. Smoker looked at the group, "It is time to get on to the next world," he stated firmly.

"What do you think Sora? Luffy?" Goofy asked the two with Keyblades who the King told him and Donald to follow.

"I do feel stronger," Sora said, punching his arms forward a few times.

Usopp stared at the kid strangely as he did those punches. _Is it just me, or is he faster than when we started the first match?_

"Hmm," Luffy hummed. "Second Gear still puts a lot of strain," he mumbled. "Guess I'll just work on it in the next world," he said with a shrug. Luffy grinned ear to ear and added with a huge smile, "And it's my turn to fly the Gummi Ship!"

Donald looked at the pirate nervously. "I don't think so. You'll just break it again!"

"That was Usopp!" Luffy exclaimed.

"What?!" The long nosed man yelled. "We only crashed on Bikini Bottom because you two wouldn't let me drive!" He pointed accusatory fingers at Donald and Sora.

The two in question looked at each other and then shrugged as if they had no idea what Usopp was talking about. "It's my turn in the order," Luffy stated, "and that's final." He put his foot down for emphasis and the decision was made.

"Alright," Donald said, then wagged a finger around at their whole group. "But if we crash again," he warned, then pointed a finger into his own chest, "then I'm the only one who gets to drive for now on." He sounded as serious as Luffy did in his previous declaration and the rest of them sighed.

"Got it." Usopp, Luffy, and Sora all agreed together.

* * *

"Whoa! What is that?!" Luffy shouted, taking a hand off the wheel and pointing out the window.

"Stop hitting meteors!"

"Look out for the other ships!"

"They're firing at us!"

"Put your hands on the wheel!"

Everyone was holding on for dear life. Donald unbuckled his seatbelt and dove across the seats to pry the wheel away from Luffy, but the pirate chose that moment to dodge and spun the ship in five spins to avoid an incoming round of red blaster fire from enemy Heartless ships. Donald went flying around the cabin while the rest of them screamed upon slamming into another space rock.

"Luffy! What are you doing?!" Nami yelled at her captain who was absolutely horrible at this.

The rubber pirate looked closer out the front window, "There it is again!" He shouted. This time, a few others caught a glimpse of what Luffy was pointing at.

When it came back into view, everyone dropped their jaws at the sight of it. They did, because _it_, was a humongous whale, flying out from behind a space rock. It plowed straight through a barrier in the dark void that normally Luffy had to shoot the Gummi Ship's blasters to break through. "Thanks giant space whale!" Luffy yelled, while waving a hand at the whale and not paying attention to the rocks crashing into the ship and making red lights blink all over the place.

"Don't thank it! That's Monstro!" Donald yelled, climbing back up into his seat himself. "And also... GIVE ME THE WHEEL!"

"Yeah Luffy, I think Donald should-" Sora began, then the teen lowered his bottom jaw, squinted his eyes, and pointed a hand out the window. "Is that, your ship?" He asked. Sora could see something flying through space a little differently than everything else, and he could have sworn he saw a lamb's head on the front of it, just like the pirates' ship.

Nami, Usopp, Robin, and Luffy all looked at the kid like he was crazy. They spun back to face outside the window, but since Luffy turned away from the windshield, he was not watching where he was going at all. In front of them was a giant rock wall, and not just one of those they could just smash right through.

"Brace yourselves!" Goofy shouted in panic.

Robin held onto her armrests tightly. _Perhaps I should not have gotten on this ship after all._

Luffy put both hands back on the wheel and became focused, but he was way too late. When he spun the wheel they were already about to crash, and he just avoided a head-on collision. The pirate started pressing all types of buttons as the panel in front of him started smoking. That only made things worse and fire broke out on the dashboard.

"Engine Failure. Engine Failure. Emergency protocol activat-" A robotic woman's voice came out of the speakers until it got cut off by the speakers bursting into flames. Explosions happened all around them and the ship's members screamed together, "AHHHH!"

* * *

Luffy stood up, covered in soot. He crossed his arms, and then stated in a completely casual tone. "Alright, Donald can drive for now on."

"Drive what, you idiot?!" Donald shouted. The duck quacked angrily and shook around to get all the black soot off of its usually white feathers. "WAWAWA-ack-ack," the duck coughed up ash in the middle of his angry shouts. "The ship is destroyed!"

Gummi pieces lay all over the place, and the crew members lay scattered around the floor near the debris. Nami rubbed her head and felt a hand on her arm. She looked up a little to see Usopp standing there, soot covering his face like the rest of them. He helped her up and patted her down a little to get some of the ash off of her. "Get yourself first baka," Nami scolded him with a small chuckle.

Usopp opened his eyes wide and Nami chuckled as it seemed like he just noticed that he had black on his body just like she did. He wiped his arms down a little and then tried clearing his face with a few swipes. He smiled at her after, looking for a reaction to see how he did.

She giggled a few times at the sight of the black spots on his cheeks and the goofy grin on his face. The younger woman shook her head and said, "Here, let me." She reached up a little and rubbed the black spot on his left cheek a few times. She was working to get it off, but after a few seconds she seemed to forget why it was she was standing this close to him, with her hand on his face.

He was looking her right back in the eyes as she held her hand there on his cheek. Neither of them moved for a few seconds, then out of nowhere a voice said, "Who turned out the lights?"

They both jumped in surprise and turned towards the main wreckage of their ship. Their eyes widened at the sight of a foot sticking out from beneath some huge orange Gummi chunks. They recognized the abnormally huge foot and the voice anywhere. "Goofy!" Nami and Usopp exclaimed at once, running over and grabbing his wriggling foot. The two of them pulled backwards and yanked the dog knight right out from under the ship's remains.

"Hyuck, thanks," the dog said to them.

"You idiot!" Someone shouted as Nami was going to say 'you're welcome' to Goofy. They all looked to the other side of the wreckage and went wide-eyes as a hand flew out of nowhere and punched Luffy straight in the side of the face. The fist had a trail of smoke coming out behind it and they followed the trail back to Smoker who was marching his way angrily. "You crashed us on this world-"

Usopp jumped up and landed in between Smoker and Luffy, a sword already risen in his hands. The two men wearing Ancient Greek attire stared at each other, and Usopp said menacingly, "What did I say about fighting us?"

"You wouldn't let me on the ship," Smoker replied without hesitation. Usopp faltered at that response and Smoker only rose his voice, "But that doesn't matter now, because the ship's broken!"

"I could help you with that," a voice said. The entire group was so focused on the ship's remains that they hadn't bothered to look around yet. Now that they did, their eyes widened as they realized they weren't in a forest, or a desert, or some crazy world. They had "landed" right in between two buildings, really tall ones considering how dark it was in the alley.

They looked to the end of the alleyway and saw a figure standing there. The voice was a girl's and that was who they saw standing there, just a teenage girl. She had blue hair down to her shoulders, and was wearing a red shirt with a yellow sweater over it.

"See, I told you I saw something fall out of the sky," a squeakier, more-annoying voice said from behind the girl's legs. The group in the alley looked over and saw something stick its head out from behind the girl's left leg.

"A pig?" Usopp deadpanned.

"Why are you even surprised?" Nami asked the man next to her. Usopp looked at Goofy and shrugged, figuring he should just get used to it already.

Smoker looked to the end of the alley, then looked over to where Luffy was standing up. He growled at the pirate for a few more seconds, but then turned to the girl, "How could you help us?"

The girl at the end of the alley grinned over at them, "My dad's the greatest scientist on the planet." She said it like it was a totally casual thing to say. "I'm sure he'll want to help you out with that strange ship you've got there."

"What do you want in exchange?" Nami asked, getting a little nervous by this girl's faked friendly look. 'She looks like... Me!' "Money?" Nami snapped, holding her Munny bag tight.

"Normally yes," the girl replied. "But I think getting a look at that ship there in itself is going to be payment." She looked way too excited and Donald ran in front of the group.

"No no no! You can't look at the Gummi Ship!" The duck quacked at her angrily.

"A Gummi Ship huh?" The blue haired teen asked. Donald dropped his jaw that he just gave up the name of the ship himself. "I've never heard of it," she said, but grinned after, "but that only makes me want to see it more."

"Not a chance!" Donald shouted at the girl.

"But umm Donald," Goofy started from behind his charred-black duck friend. "Don't we need to find His Majesty?"

"And save the worlds," Sora whispered quieter to his friend.

"We need to get the ship fixed," Smoker stated firmly.

"I'll do it!" Donald shouted.

"I don't know how you think _you_ are going to put that heap of junk together without a mechanic, but if you really don't want any help, I guess I'll just go," the teenager shrugged at them and turned around, walking for the end of the alley. "Let's go Oolong."

"Donald, please," Sora begged the magician. "I have to find Riku and Kairi."

"The faster the ship gets fixed, the less chance someone else happens on it," Robin spoke up. She saw Donald's defiant look perk up after that and she continued. "If some thieves were to show up and take parts of the ship, who knows? Maybe they would even be able to build a Gummi Ship of their own."

"Ack!" Donald exclaimed. He spun to the end of the alley and started running down it. "Wait! Wait! You can help!"

"Good one Robin," Nami said to the woman next to her. Robin just grinned innocently as if she had no idea what Nami was implying.

The teenager at the end of the alleyway smirked as she was called back, exactly like she planned it. She stopped and turned around, "Oh? So you do want help?"

"Yes yes!" Donald exclaimed at the girl.

"Sure quick to change your mind there buster," the short pink pig next to the teen said in a mocking tone towards Donald.

While Donald quacked at the pig, the others all gathered at the end of the alley. "I'll tell my dad where to pick up your wreck. Where'd you guys come from?"

"We're from-" Luffy started, but Nami jumped behind him and wrapped her arms around his head, closing his mouth for him.

"Far away," Sora said, smiling at the girl a few years older than him. Seeing the spiky haired kid's smile made the other teenager smile too. She felt, disarmed, just like when she was with another spiky haired boy she knew. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you. I'm Sora, and this is Donald, Goofy, Luffy, Smoker, Nami, Usopp, and Robin." He pointed at each of them one by one and then sighed at the end. "Sure are a lot of us now," he admitted with a small laugh.

Donald looked annoyed by that so Sora quickly changed the subject, "So anyway, thanks for offering to fix up our ship. What's you name?"

"Me?" The teen with blue hair asked, grinning at the kid in front of her. She pointed a thumb right into the center of her chest and said proudly, "I'm Bulma, Bulma Briefs."

**A/N Hope you liked it! Leave a review telling me what you think!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17:**

"So where are we going?" Usopp asked the girl leading their ragtag group down the sidewalk. They all looked terrible with soot still covering their clothes.

The pig with the girl up front looked back at them. "You mean you didn't come here for the tournament?" Oolong asked.

"Another tournament?" Nami questioned with a sigh.

"The World's Martial Arts Tournament," Bulma said, looking back at the group following her. "I'm sure you've heard of it, even if you are from 'Far Away.'" She said, quoting Sora and looking at the kid skeptically after saying it.

Sora laughed sheepishly and looked away, starting to whistle so he could avoid the question. "Let's just pretend like we don't know what it is, wanna explain it to us?" Sora asked, glancing back to Bulma with a small smile.

The blue haired girl sighed. "Where'd you guys come from? Space?" She asked and laughed at her own joke.

"Haha, ha, haaa," Usopp laughed along and a few of the others put on big smiles to make it seem like it was a real funny joke and not the truth.

"You guys really don't know?" The blue haired teen asked, looking around at them all. She sighed and looked back forward, before starting "Every three years, the strongest fighters all over the world gather together to see who's the strongest of them all. This year is the twenty second WMAT."

"WMAT?" Luffy asked in confusion.

"World's Martial Arts Tournament," Bulma said in exasperation. "It's an acronym," she said, seeing that Luffy had no clue why she called it a bunch of letters first.

"Acro-what?" The pirate asked her.

Bulma stared at the idiot for a few seconds then sighed. "Not another one," she mumbled. She turned forward and saw some people down the road who waved over to her. "Alright, we made it back to the stadium. Good catch there Oolong," Bulma said to the pig walking with her.

"Yeah, we sure got lucky stumbling on these schmucks," Oolong said sarcastically.

His tone wasn't appreciated by the travelers behind him. They were distracted though by the calls coming from the people Bulma was waving at. One of them ran towards her and despite looking like just a little kid with a shaved head, he ran really fast. The boy ran up to them and when they could see him better they saw he had six dot-shaped scars on his forehead.

The kid wearing a blue suit and matching snazzy blue hat looked around at the people Bulma brought. "Who are these guys?" The kid asked in a high-pitched voice, showing his short stature wasn't the only thing that was stunted. "And have you seen Goku?" The kid asked the people behind Bulma.

"He's still not here?" Bulma asked worriedly. She looked over towards the walls surrounding the WMAT building. There was a desk in front of the entrance and the monks were still sitting behind it which meant the sign in sheets were still out. "If he doesn't hurry, he's going to miss the cut off time."

"I'm sure Goku will be here," someone said behind Bulma and her short friend. "Krillin, why don't you go look around for him?"

The little kid with a bald head under his hat nodded and ran off, picking up dust as he did. The man who walked forward and sent Krillin away was wearing a black suit, top hat, and sunglasses. He looked very old from his cane and white facial hair, but for some reason, Luffy, Smoker, and Usopp all got the feeling that this was a very impressive old man.

Walking forward next to the old man was a taller, more muscular, and much younger man with short black hair. He had on a similar blue suit as the kid who just ran off. "I'm worried Goku isn't going to make it," Yamcha said, sounding nervous just like the rest of them.

"Is this Goku guy really strong?" Nami asked, raising her eyebrows at the people in front of her.

"Really strong?" The tall man asked in disbelief. "Haven't you heard of him? Goku was the runner up of the last tournament!"

"Sounds impressive," Robin said.

"You know what's more impressive?" The old man spoke back up, stepping forward closer to Nami and Robin. "The man who taught Goku," he smiled wide at the ladies' amazed looks. _You've got 'em Roshi. Time to seal the deal! _"And, you know what's even more impressive?" He asked, leaning forward and raising his hands towards the women's chests, drool coming out of his mouth.

"You old perv!" Bulma shouted, jumping forward and bashing the old man on top of his head, giving him a much worse nosebleed than the one he already had. She left him lying on the floor and looked up at the teenager around her age and the older woman. "Sorry about him," Bulma said, though she didn't seem too focused on her apology. She was much too worried that Goku wasn't going to show up in time. Once she actually looked at the other two women though, she saw there was no need for her to step in at all from the expressions on their faces. She had probably just saved Roshi actually.

"Five minutes until sign ups are over!" A bald man sitting behind the desk over near the entrance shouted.

"Oh no!" Bulma shouted, looking around for her friend.

As she spun around her head, her eyes bulged at the sight of the entrance to the WMAT. There was now a line stretching four people back from the desk. She spun back in front of her and saw the orange haired teenager face-palming as there were four empty spaces around her now where her friends used to be.

"Hold on there," Yamcha called over to the others who just ran on line. Usopp was second in line and turned to see the muscular guy in an orange gi walking his way. Yamcha pointed at him and said, "He seems fine to enter, but the rest of you should think about this first." He looked at the two skinny teens and the weird dog-person who also didn't look very strong.

"That's right," Master Roshi said, suddenly recovered from his head wound before. "If you are not prepared to get seriously hurt, then you should not-"

"Don't worry about us," Sora assured the two men from his spot third in line.

Goofy stood behind Sora with a happy smile on his face, and the dog leaned forward and put Sora in a friendly headlock. "That's right hyuck! Sora here has the Keyblade."

"Weapons aren't allowed in the tournament," Yamcha mentioned.

The knight with a shield and the Keybearer both went wide-eyed. "What if the weapon is part of his body?" A voice asked and Yamcha turned to see the beautiful orange haired girl standing right behind him. His face went red and he leaned back, but Nami just stepped closer, "Would that be okay?"

"Oh, uh, I-I don't know about that," Yamcha stuttered out.

Nami pushed by him and walked over to the desk. She slammed her hands down on it while her captain stood next to her, ready to sign up. The two monks behind the desk looked very afraid of this skinny woman glaring at them. "Would that be okay?" She growled at them. "If the weapon came from his body, that would be fine right?" She asked, her eyes looking red to the men behind the desk.

"Uhh," the fatter monk turned to the guy next to him. They whispered for a few seconds, then the fat man looked back at her. "I do believe that is within the rules-"

"Perfect," Nami said, her red eyes turning back to normal and a bright, cheerful smile coming to her face.

"You seem awfully into this all of a sudden," Yamcha said confusedly to the woman who at first seemed against this.

Nami turned to him with a huge grin and then looked back at the sign near the wall. "That's a lot of money right?" She asked, pointing at the reward posted. She didn't know the type of currency this world used, but she knew what a lot of zeroes at the end of any number meant.

"Yeaaahh," Yamcha said slowly, as if that was obvious. Nami didn't like the attitude and she spun to him angrily, making the man shy backwards with red cheeks.

Bulma watched as Yamcha shied away and she frowned over at the other teenage girl. _Watch yourself Nami, he's mine. _The blue haired girl walked over with a huge fake smile on her face. "Too bad about the reward money though," Bulma said with a sigh.

"Huh? Why's that?" Nami asked, while the men behind her started signing up.

She turned to Bulma and Bulma shrugged with a small smile. "Everyone knows Yamcha, Krillin, and Goku are going to be the only competitors for this year's WMAT."

"Ehh?" Nami asked, leaning towards the other girl while Bulma leaned right back. "I'll have you know my boys here are much stronger than yours."

"Oh yeah?" Bulma asked, pushing her face right back at Nami. "You wanna make a bet on that?"

"Wait, that kid from before is in the tournament?" Sora asked, thinking about the small kid who ran off.

"Don't sound so surprised," a voice said and Sora spun to see the kid wearing a blue hat was right behind him. Krillin smirked at his surprised reaction, the continued while pointing at himself, "I made it to the semi-finals three years ago. This year I'm going to win!"

"Not so fast there Krillin," Yamcha said from the opposite side of the line. "You're gonna have to get through me first. And after my training these past three years, I know I'm going to win."

"Nope," a voice said and they each looked in to see Luffy step right up between them with crossed arms. "I'm going to win," the pirate said, then grinned and looked at either of the fighters next to him.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sora called behind him, then stepped up to the sign up desk himself.

The monks behind the desk seemed nervous with the fourteen year old in front of them. "Are you sure you want to enter?" One of the men asked Sora carefully. "You could really get hurt-"

"Don't worry about me," Sora assured the two men. He leaned forward over the desk and smiled, "I'm going to win."

The skinny monk sighed as Sora wrote his name down. "That's what they all say."

"But you know, I'm really getting worried," Bulma said, looking around as there was still no sign of this boy they were all waiting for.

Nami looked next to her at the gray-haired Marine Captain who had his arms crossed. "Hey," she said to him, making him glance her way with an annoyed look. "You're trapped here just like the rest of us, how about you enter this competition and win us some money," she offered in more of a commanding tone.

"Why would I do that?" he asked her in annoyance.

"Well we need to eat while we're here," Bulma said as if it were obvious. "And we don't have any of this, _place's_, currency."

"Hey Master Roshi," Krillin began in a whisper. He leaned up to the old man next to him, "Isn't Zeni the currency used all around the world?"

Roshi hummed to himself and muttered, "That's right Krillin. I don't know where these folks could have came from," he thought about it a little harder, but was suddenly distracted as was the rest of the group.

Three people had walked straight up to Master Roshi. There was a tall muscular guy on one side, a very short little boy with pale white skin on the left, and in the middle of the three was an old man with a hat that had a bird with a long neck sticking out of it. The old man was wearing sunglasses just like Master Roshi and he started off in a smug tone, "Hello. Nice to see you come out of your shell, Master Roshi."

Everyone turned to their old man in a black suit and could see him glaring back at the new arrivals. All three of the people who walked up to them were wearing green outfits with symbols on the front of them, tight black hats, and baggy yellow clothes under their green outfits so that their arms and legs were covered by them. Still, one look at the tall man on the right and everyone there could tell he was extremely strong.

Nami looked at all the people they just grouped up with, and not one of them seemed to recognize these strangely clad people. Only the old man was glaring at them intensely through his sunglasses, and the air suddenly became very thick. Roshi started in an uninterested tone, "Hermit Crane what a surprise. After all these years you're still alive."

"Heh heh heh, the lines on your face are just as deep my old friend," the other old man with a strange gray mustache that spiked down on either side of his mouth replied. Crane and Roshi glared at each other.

"Well that was rude," Bulma said, and most people were glaring at these new arrivals with a look of dislike.

Smoker kept looking at them for a few more seconds, then he thought about what Nami told him. _We do need money. Anyway, this tournament might be good to make my Haki stronger. It may be the only way to stop that Maleficent woman._ He turned and made his way for the sign ups while the others bantered with each other.

Crane was midway through insulting Master Roshi and his students, saying that anything was possible if they did well during the last tournament, when Luffy suddenly spoke up. The pirate was pointing a finger at the old man and asked, "Why does he have a stupid bird on his head?" Every person there dropped their jaws, and then Sora burst out laughing. Master Roshi was getting ready to make a retort to his old rival, but that was so much better and he snickered for a few seconds before bursting out in laughter with the rest of them.

"Laugh all you want," Crane stated with only a slightly annoyed look. "Fighting against my team is an act of futility. Not even Jackie Chun could handle my boys. Do yourself a favor and go home."

The tall man next to Crane smirked and looked into Yamcha's eyes who glared right back at him with an annoyed expression. The short one on Crane's left showed no emotion as he stood there with his arms crossed in his sleeves like the other two in the Crane Hermit's school for Martial Arts.

"We can't go home," Luffy said with a shrug. "So I guess we'll just have to beat you," he added and grinned over at the old man.

Crane looked over at the pirate, then insulted the old man in front of him for taking on such students. Roshi immediately retorted something about the other man blowing hot air, and the two of them jumped up in front of each other pressing their foreheads into each other and growling with sharp teeth about not getting in the other's way. Finally, Crane turned and walked over to the entrance. He looked back once at the big group, "You've been warned. Now suffer the consequences." He turned and walked inside, only talking to his two pupils next to him, "Let's go. I've wasted enough time on these fools."

The three of them walked inside the WMAT stadium, and Yamcha walked over to Master Roshi. "Who was that guy?"

"He goes by Master Shen, and I used to call him friend-" before Master Roshi could continued, Oolong shouted out in a panic, "Time's almost up! There's only one minute left!"

A turtle that was with the group, named Turtle, waddled right next to a blonde woman with curly hair, lifted up its head and said in a low voice, "He's not gonna make it."

Luffy looked down at the turtle with wide-eyes. "The turtle can talk too?!" He shook his head and looked around at all the awesome creatures with him.

Yamcha had an idea as everyone panicked. "Hey Puar," he started and a blue cat floating next to his shoulder looked in at him. "Transform into Goku and sign up for him."

The group that came with the Keybearers were confused as to what he was talking about, but before the cat could show them its transforming skills, the blond woman pointed her hand down the road. "Wait. Look here he is!" Launch held up a hand excitedly and everyone spun to face where she was looking.

"Hey everybody!" the boy sprinting down the road called out. He was wearing tiger skins and had an orange pole strapped to his back.

Nami looked from him, to the teen next to her, then back to him. "Wow Sora, he's got spikier hair than you do."

Sora was thinking the same thing as the kid with black spiky hair came running all the way down the road and stopped right in front of him.

Goku sprinted straight to them so fast that he had to skid to a stop and the dust clouds rising up behind him finally settled down. All of Goku's friends ran up to him excitedly asking how he's been, then the pig Oolong walked up and asked, "I just have one question for you Goku. Did you swim here?"

"Yea. Part of the way. From a place called Yahhoy," Goku responded.

Everyone from this world gasped at his response and the others just looked at each other confusedly. Nami turned to Bulma, "Why is that so surprising?"

Bulma turned to the woman next to her with sweat on both sides of her face. "Yahhoy's on the other side of the Earth," Bulma said with bulging eyes.

Nami turned back to the kid in front of her and gulped. She glanced back at her captain and the others with her, _They can beat him right? He's just a kid!_

Master Roshi walked over while everyone was talking, and he said, "Well Goku, what's important is that you are registered. Now, why don't we get something to eat. It's customary to eat before a big fight. And since they don't come any bigger than the World's Martial Arts tournament, we should dine on the best meal this town has to offer!"

Everyone clapped for Master Roshi and Goku exclaimed that that sounded great. While Master Roshi turned around and looked inside his wallet to check how much he had on him, everyone else turned and started walking away.

"If the old man is treating, how about you guys come eat with us?" Bulma suggested to the group closer to the wall who she brought there.

"We would love to," Nami replied with a grin. "A free meal is the tastiest meal as they say," she said and then started laughing loudly.

Luffy ran up to the spiky haired boy walking with the rest of his friends. "Hey, you're Goku right?"

"Yeah, that's me," the teenage boy responded to the older teen. "Nice to meet you whoever you are."

"Luffy," the pirate said with a grin. "I hear you're pretty strong."

"Yeah, I'm trying to win the tournament this year," Goku said with a smile on his face.

"Well you'll have to beat me first," Luffy replied with a competitive smile.

"You're on," Goku said back and started laughing, and Luffy joined in with the laughter.

"I'm Krillin by the way," the short guy walking on Sora's left introduced, looking up at the taller spiky-haired boy next to him.

Yamcha looked down and introduced himself to the kid as well. Then the older man stated, "You know, Goku and Krillin were trained by Master Roshi. So even though they are just kids like you, they are pretty strong. Are you sure you want to be in this tournament?"

Sora just grinned at the older man and then looked down at Krillin too, "You guys better get ready." He held up his right hand and a yellow hilt formed in his grip. Out from the hilt came a long silver shaft with prongs at the end of it, and Sora slashed it in front of him a few times. "I'm going for the gold!"

"Whoa," Krillin said, dragging out his voice. "Where'd you get that cool weapon?"

"I don't know," Sora replied with a shrug. "But it's pretty strong. I'm just glad that monk guy said that I could use it in my fight."

Krillin started sweating a little, "That seems a little unfair."

"What? You think I'm going to beat you?" Sora asked, smirking at the shorter boy around his age.

The bald kid snapped his head up, "What? No way!"

Sora grinned at his Keyblade vanished in a bunch of shards of light. The group continued to walk towards a nice fancy restaurant, laughing and getting to know each other. All the while, a single shadow watched from far behind them. It stood at the entrance to the WMAT and continued facing towards them for a few seconds. Then, it turned inside the gates and looked across the opening towards three figures in green and yellow outfits. The shadow stared at them for a moment, then as the tall muscular figure looked his way, he vanished.

Tien Shinhan glared at the entrance to the WMAT for a few more seconds, then shook his head. _It must have been nothing. Do not get distracted. I am going to win this tournament, no matter what._

* * *

Sora lifted up his head in the middle of the night. He and his friends were in the back of a truck that Bulma had handy in her pocketbook. Apparently on this world, there were these capsule that when opened, could be storing things as large as houses. The blue haired teenage girl tossed it on the ground and a huge truck showed up in front of the hotel that she and her friends were staying at. There, she said the group she met could stay for the night. She let them use her phone too, and they called up Bulma's dad to see how the ship was coming along, only to receive a lot of loud quacking over the line as Donald shouted at them to stop bothering them so that he could finish the ship faster.

The reason Sora lifted up his head midway through the night though, was that he was excited. He crept out of his bed and threw on some clothes as fast as he could. The boy headed for the door to the truck, but right before he reached it he heard behind him, "Sora?"

The brown haired kid spun around and lifted up a finger to his mouth. "Shh," he said over to the dog-guy who also sat up in his bed. Goofy held his hands over his mouth and looked around, but it didn't seem like anyone else woke up on account of him talking. Sora saw Goofy was confused, so he waved his hand towards him while keeping his other hand up to his mouth to make sure Goofy stayed quiet.

When he and Goofy got out of the truck, Sora released a deep breath and turned to his friend. "Sorry for waking you up," Sora apologized to the knight. "I got really excited thinking about tomorrow's tournament, so I wanted to get a headstart on our opponents."

"Gawrsh, that sounds like a great idea," Goofy said, nodding at Sora. "I need to practice without my shield anyway," the dog added.

Sora smiled at his friend and nodded his head down the road a little. "Let's head over to the tournament ground then."

The two of them ran down the street in the dark as it was still late at night. No cars drove past them as they ran, and the two excitedly reached a little forest near the tournament ground. "Here looks like a great place…" Sora began, then quieted down as he looked ahead of him with some sweat coming down both sides of his face. Directly in front of him was a muscular man using a tree trunk as a punching bag. Sora turned to the right and heard a man grunting every time he did a squat while holding a hundred pound rock over his head. A little farther away were two furry creatures punching the air over and over again in slashes with their sharp claws.

"Looks like we aren't the only ones who thought about this, hyuck," Goofy observed.

"We were just thinking the same thing," a voice said behind them.

Donald and Sora spun around and their lips curved into big smiles at the sight of Krillin and Yamcha standing behind them. "Looks like you weren't as confident as you made yourselves out to be," Sora said with a chuckle as he looked at the students of Master Roshi's Turtle Hermit school

"Hey, speak for yourself Sora," Yamcha told the boy who was also out here in the dead of night. "We just came to get a headstart…"

"On the competition," Sora finished, crossing his arms as he did. "Same with us."

"And what do you think?" Krillin asked in a nervous tone. He looked around at everyone, "I don't remember the competition being so big."

Sora smiled and looked at all the muscular guys around them. _Ha. These guys are nothing compared to the Heartless. I can't wait to show them my stuff._ "Come on Goofy, let's go spar."

Yamcha and Krillin watched as Sora and Goofy ran off to a different area of the forest. "Spar? Are they nuts?" Krillin asked skeptically. "If they hurt each other before the matches…"

"Well, then there will be less competition for us, eh Krillin?" Yamcha asked with a grin, and the smaller fighter next to him smiled and started laughing. Yamcha looked after Sora and Goofy with a strange look though. _The weapon that kid has. It seemed really strong. I'll have to look out for that tomorrow._

* * *

"Preliminaries?" Luffy asked confusedly as he followed Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha into the main hall of the WMAT. "What are those?"

Krillin looked back at the lanky pirate with a big smirk that he had this knowledge and the older guy didn't. "Well, the tournament is too big to let everyone fight in the finals. So they have prelims to decide who the strongest eight are before the main tournament starts."

"Only the strongest eight?" Usopp asked, looking around the room at all the strong, muscular fighters around the room. The long-nosed man gulped as he then looked around the group with him, "And last tournament you three made the final eight?"

"That's right," Goku replied with a casual smile as if he didn't understand why Usopp looked nervous. Goku looked around a little more, and then saw an old man he recognized and ran over to him. The others all followed and Yamcha and Krillin smiled at the person who they recognized. "Yoo-hoo," Goku greeted the guy, tapping him in the back a few times.

Luffy and the others watched as Goku greeted the old man with blue hair spiked up above his head and very familiar white facial hair. Smoker stared at the old man a little longer than the others and he thought, _Isn't this the same old man who bought us dinner last night? Roshi?_ He listened as Yamcha explained to Luffy, Sora, Usopp, and Goofy that this guy was Master Jackie Chun, and the winner of the last tournament. Smoker's eyes widened more, _He won the last tournament? That pervy old man? Guess this tourney isn't all it's cracked up to be._

The monk in charge of the room got on a microphone and started announcing to everyone how great it was that they were all here. "… a record high 187 fighters…"

"187?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"That sure is a lot of people to beat," Sora added with a nod of his head.

While they talked about their opponents, they noticed the sounds of munching and looked to their lefts to see Goku and Luffy standing next to each other, both of them eating huge rice balls.

Soon after the monk finished his announcement, another monk went up and told the fighters that to decide the matches, each of them would draw lots from the box in the front of the room. Every fighter got in line and walked up to the box to figure out when they were supposed to fight. Luffy was the first one on line, and he excitedly reached into the box and pulled out a handful of white slips of paper.

"Only take one!" the monk behind the box yelled at him.

"Then how do I know if I get number one or not?" Luffy asked the guy.

"You don't!" the monk shouted.

Luffy frowned but only grabbed one slip and walked away, dropping all the others for the monks to pick up and put back in the box, reshuffling the contents. The rest of their group got their ballots, then gathered together and they unfolded the slips of paper in their hands that had their numbers on them. Luffy groaned as he opened his slip and muttered as he pointed it towards his friends, "Number 2."

"Well, at least that's close to number one," Sora offered as a consolation. "I got one hundred and six," he added, showing the others his number as well. He turned and looked at the tournament bracket up on the wall near him. "That puts me, in the first half of tournament block 3." Since two people got picked from each of the four blocks, it made sense to separate each block into two to figure out who they would be facing.

"I'm in the second half of block one," Goku said with a scratch of his head.

Krillin chuckled and said, "Second half of block two." He turned to Sora and showed him his number which was only one away from being put in the first half of block three. "Aww, too bad. I don't get to kick your butt until next round."

Sora turned to him and grinned, "I was just about to say the same thing."

"What about you mister?" Goku asked Jackie Chun who was up reading the board.

The old man turned and smiled at the group, "I am in the first half of block 4."

Yamcha looked around at them all and then looked at the slip of paper in his hands. "Don't be with Goku. Don't be with Goku," he muttered to himself, then smiled wide as he unfolded the slip of paper. "One hundred and seventy three, good, that puts me in the second half of block four."

Krillin threw his hands up in the air. "That's great! None of us are fighting each other!"

"One hundred and seventy four," a voice read out directly on Yamcha's left.

Everyone spun around and stared at Goofy who was holding up a slip of paper with the number directly after Yamcha. He turned to the man his height right next to him, "Gawrsh, that means we're fighting each other doesn't it?"

Krillin lowered his arms back down as he realized he celebrated a moment too early. Then, another voice spoke up, "And I'm in the first half of block four too." They all looked over to Captain Smoker now who stepped forward and looked at the man with a white mustache and beard who he knew for sure was that Master Roshi from yesterday. He opened his mouth to say something about it, but the old man narrowed his eyes at him and he closed his mouth. _The old man doesn't want them to know, and he got me some food. I guess I could keep the secret._ Smoker gave the man a small nod.

Roshi nodded his head back at the man who seemed sharper than the rest of his group. He was sweating a little and thought, _That was a close one._ He turned a little to Goku who was smiling and talking to his friends. _As Master Roshi I could never fully test your strength. I know as Jackie Chun you will not hold back against me._

A monk started announcing on a microphone at the head of the room, "We will now start with the elimination round which will decide which eight fighters will fight in the championships. Each match will be one on one and confined to the boundaries of the ring. There is no time limit, and each match will continue until at least one opponent is defeated, leaves the ring, or gives up. No weapons are allowed. In the event that an official ruling is needed to clarify a winner, all decisions will be made by a judge whose decisions will be final. The tournament does not take responsibility for loss of property, or life."

Luffy looked at Usopp expecting him to gulp, but the man with a long nose just chuckled seeing his captain look his way expectantly. "I've been in a lot of tournaments Luffy. You better hope we don't meet up in the finals."

The announcements ended and Goku turned to Krillin. "Well this is it," he told his best friend. "Good luck Krillin." He bumped elbows with the other short boy and then started laughing loudly as the bald boy walked away. Goku, Yamcha, and Krillin were all wearing orange fighting gis with the Turtle Hermit symbol on the backs of them.

There were four tournament stages inside the large room, allowing the preliminaries to go pretty fast. The first stage was set up the fastest, and a monk was there already reading off his clipboard. "The first match will be from block number one. At this time, fighters number 1 and 2 may enter the ring."

Luffy grinned as even though he didn't get number one, he still got a match in the very first fight of the first round. He jumped up in the air and landed on the stage, right in the middle of it. The judge looked at the skinny guy with small arms and legs and sighed, then became very nervous as he looked across the ring and saw a dragon-creature stepping up on the ring. The purple creature had two huge wings and very muscular arms and legs, walking on those very buff legs right up to the center of the stage and looking down at his opponent.

"Oh wow, looks like Luffy got a tough one in the first round," Yamcha stated as he saw the creature Luffy was going up against.

"Pshh," Usopp laughed at the comment from the man next to him.

Yamcha and Jackie Chun both looked in at Usopp confusedly, but then Sora spoke up from next to the muscular pirate. "I doubt Luffy is too worried."

Both of the other men looked back at each other, shrugged, then turned to the stage where the dragon was laughing while looking down at his opponent. "I'm going to gobble you up little man."

Luffy continued staring at the face of the huge lizard monster for a few more seconds, then asked, "Can you breath fire?"

"What?!" the thing that looked like a dragon, but totally wasn't, yelled at Luffy. "That's racist! I'll show you!"

The judge started the match, and the lizard guy punched a huge fist down at Luffy. Luffy lifted up his right hand, catching his opponent's fist as it was swung down at him. "Shishishi," he chuckled as his black hair shadowed his eyes. His straw hat was resting on his back over his red shirt as he didn't want it to get hurt during his matches. He looked up a little into the dragon's black eyes and pulled back his left hand, throwing it so far behind him that it went over the second ring, and over the third one behind that, stalling both fights and making the fighters look over with dropped jaws. "Gum Gum," he started loudly, then his extended arm snapped forward all at once and his hand slammed into the dragon's stomach, "Bullet!"

One second the purple dragon guy was there, the next second there was a hole on the opposite wall that was in the perfect shape of a dragon. "Shishishi," Luffy laughed and grabbed the bicep of the arm he just used. He looked around the room and saw the vast majority of people gawking at him, "Who's next?" he asked, and a few dozen fighters felt the instant urge to back out of their fights if they had to go up against this guy.

* * *

Outside the hall where the prelims were going on, the others were sitting at a table drinking sodas and overall being bored together. The women and the animals from this world were all lazily lounging about. "Not being able to watch the matches is lame," Nami complained, slamming her hands down on the table. "What are we supposed to do in the meantime?"

"The first matches have already started," the pink pig wearing a pair of overalls said. "There's no point in trying to sneak in now."

Bulma lowered her soda a little, "I just hope they all get through it in one piece." She looked at the two women sitting on her right opposite Launch. "Are you sure you should have let Sora enter the tournament?"

Robin nodded her head at the younger woman. "Sora-kun is quite strong."

"I'm amazed actually," Nami said in a confused tone. She leaned back in her seat and looked up at the sky. "Only a few weeks ago, I feel like I could have beaten him. But now," she thought about the last tournament she watched back in the Olympic Coliseum. "He's keeping up with Luffy and Usopp. I don't know how he does it."

"That little brat and the hunk are on the same level?" the woman with curly blonde hair opposite Nami stated in a deep voice. "Huh? That I've gotta see for myself."

Nami's forehead twitched as Launch called Usopp a hunk and she stood up out of her seat just as Launch was getting up. "Who do you think you are?" Nami snapped at the woman they just met.

Launch turned her head slowly and glared at Nami. "What was that Red?" she asked, nicknaming the girl in front of her. "Are you asking _me_ a question in that tone?" Launch reached down and lifted up a submachine gun in front of her.

Puar screamed and dove for cover along with the rest of them who knew Launch's habit of pulling out guns when she got angry. Nami was shocked, but Bulma tackled her down knowing the other girl wouldn't be ready. They all waited for the bullets to fire, and they waited a little longer, and then they got up and looked towards Launch just to drop their jaws. Launch was standing there with two hands covering her mouth, six more hands holding her arms to her sides, and the machine gun that was in her hands was now resting in Nico Robin's.

Robin turned to the others around her with a small smile, then looked back at Launch, "I would ask you to refrain from pointing weapons in my direction." Though she said it in a calm voice, two more hands appeared out of Launch's shoulders and lightly rested on her throat, immediately halting all struggles coming from the curly haired girl. Then, all at once, Robin's extra hands vanished and she slid the gun back across the table towards its owner.

Blonde haired Launch stared down at the weapon cautiously, then snatched it up, but Robin wasn't playing a trick on her and just let her grab it. After a few seconds of glaring straight into the dark-haired woman's eyes, Launch smiled from ear to ear and started laughing in her deep tone, "Hahaha! I like you! Hahaha!"

The others all started laughing along nervously and got back up in their seats. Nami looked at Launch like she was a crazy person, but besides that they got back to normal. After a few more minutes of sitting down though, Robin stood up out of nowhere and looked to Nami. "I am going to go on a walk."

"Where to?" Nami asked her older friend, confused as to where she could be going.

Robin looked up at the bright blue sky of this new world above her. "Exploring," she responded, thinking of all the amazing things she could learn about this world. The smile on her face was genuine and Nami smiled at her, standing up and offering to join. Robin nodded her head at the younger woman, and they said goodbye to the group of friends they made who waved them off. Robin turned to Nami while they walked, "While we are exploring," she began, making Nami turn towards her. She continued, "We should look for this world's Keyhole. From what Jafar told me in our time together, I do believe they are quite important to Maleficent's plans."

Nami's eyes widened. "You think this world has a Keyhole?"

Robin nodded her head. "I believe all the worlds do. And since the boys are all occupied, I believe we should find it ourselves."

The younger woman nodded a few times with a small frown on her face. "I guess that makes sense." She sighed, "We get stuck doing all the work while they play around all day. Sheesh."

* * *

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Donald hammered away at pieces of the Gummi Ship. He muttered angrily to himself over and over again, getting distracted by his angry thoughts even and hammering down on his own thumb. "WAWAWAWA!" he quacked and ran around the lab as Bulma's father, Dr. Briefs, shouted at him to calm down and stop knocking over the pieces they had already put together. Finally Donald calmed down and stared at his swelling red thumb for a few seconds, blowing on it. Then he pointed his head up and quacked, "When I get my hands on Luffy…"

* * *

"Hey Luffy come on," Sora called to the pirate behind him who was looking around at some more of the competition. "Goofy and Yamcha are about to start their match!"

Luffy turned and ran over to the spiky haired kid who was standing at the third stage where Yamcha and Goofy were facing each other.

"You can do it Goofy!" Sora cheered on his friend.

"Haha," Krillin laughed in a taunting tone. "There's no way Yamcha loses this match." Krillin himself had just won a match against a man a hundred times his height named Anton the Great, the former world's wrestling champion who was too strong that none of his opponents in the wrestling league wanted to fight him anymore. Krillin beat the guy about as easily as Luffy beat his first round match.

Luffy was about to retort how Goofy was pretty strong, when he noticed Yamcha moving his hands into a stance in front of them. The match began and immediately, Yamcha vanished to ninety percent of the people in the room. To the left of the stage, two figures in green uniforms who were wearing black hats could easily follow the movements of the man, as could Goku, Krillin, and Master Roshi, or Jackie Chun as he was going by in the tournament. As for the rest of the room, it became incredibly hard to see where the man with short black hair vanished to.

Yamcha reappeared on Goofy's left side, then snapped his wrist up and hit the dog guy in the face. Sora lowered his bottom lip at Yamcha's speed, then watched as Goofy fell down to the floor and didn't move. "One hit," Sora whispered in amazement, and a little bit of nervousness.

Usopp and Luffy were amazed too and stared at Yamcha in a new light. Yamcha turned to Goofy's lying down form and bowed a little. The monk lifted up a hand and said, "Since contestant one seventy four is unable to fight…" then he stopped talking.

A bunch of people around them gasped and Yamcha spun back around to see Goofy standing back up on his feet. "You sure pack a punch hyuck," Goofy said with a smile. He reached up and rubbed his muzzle a little. The guy in front of him in an orange turtle hermit gi frowned, then charged forward again with a flurry of punches and kicks. Goofy started swinging his arms back at the guy and charging head-first with his head ducked down to stay protected. Yamcha ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged each of Goofy's punches, just to swipe right back and hit the dog in another unprotected area.

Goofy stumbled backwards as midway through one of his punches, Yamcha got a hit into his stomach. "Ugh," the dog muttered, staggering back until he was standing almost on the edge of the ring. He looked back a little, and then when he looked back forward, Yamcha was directly in front of him. "Uh oh," he said, then Yamcha kicked him in the front and he flew off the ledge out into the crowd.

"Contestant one seventy four has left the arena. One hundred and seventy three, you advance to the next round."

Yamcha broke a sweat, but he calmed down his breathing a little and smiled. He put his hands together and bowed to the dog-guy who was lying on the ground outside the ring with swirls over his eyes.

"Goofy!" Sora exclaimed, running over to the other side of the ring where Goofy was thrown off. He lifted up his arms and the Keyblade appeared in them. He lifted it up and called out, "Cure!" A bunch of people looked over in confusion, then saw the green light that left Sora's weapon shimmer down over Goofy. While Sora held his Keyblade out, he stared at it funny, as it looked different from the normal Kingdom Key he had been using, and it wasn't the one he got from the Deep Jungle either.

"Whoa Sora, when did you get that?" Usopp asked as he showed up next to the kid and stared at the entirely gold Keyblade in his hands.

"I, I don't know," Sora whispered. Looking at it, it kind of had a style similar to what he would expect from Agrabah. **Three Wishes.** He heard the voice in his head and swung the weapon across his body, "Wow, it's a lot heavier than my normal Keyblade. I bet it packs a bigger punch too!"

After Sora called out his healing spell, Yamcha and the others in the room noticed he didn't look very concerned about his friend anymore. However, there was no need to be, as Goofy got right back up on his feet looking got as new, without any of the bruises he got during his fight with Yamcha. Yamcha hopped off the stage and walked over to them, "Wow Sora, that's some great weapon you've got there."

"It made him all better," Goku added as he looked at Goofy who walked over.

The dog person walked right up to Yamcha and chuckled, "Gawrsh, you sure are strong Yamcha."

"You're not bad yourself," Yamcha laughed and said back to the creature in front of him.

Sora smiled and turned to Yamcha, "With his shield, Goofy's one of the strongest guys I've ever met. I bet he could have taken you."

"I don't know Sora," Goofy said before anyone could come up with a retort. "I think Yamcha's just stronger than me."

"Really?" Sora asked in surprise that Goofy was saying that. He turned back to Yamcha and grinned, "Wow, I can't wait to fight you then."

Yamcha laughed and looked at the kid, but Sora didn't seem as nervous as he thought the kid would be after seeing that last fight. Sora clenched a fist in front of him once his Keyblade disappeared. "By the end of this tournament, I'm going to be much stronger." Around his body there was suddenly a feeling of warmth that each of the figures around him could feel. "I just know it, the strength I get here is going to help me save Kairi."

"Who's that?" Krillin asked the taller teen next to him who looked incredibly determined.

Sora frowned and his mind flashed for a second to the moment where Kairi was flying towards him. He held out his arms, but she flew right through him, and then his world… The teenager's face distorted from his happy smile and the warmth of the moment was gone. The others in Sora's group could tell what he was thinking about, though Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha were confused as to why Sora seemed so serious all of a sudden. Before they could ask why this was, a voice spoke up on their left and everyone turned.

"You call that a good fight? It's surprising what amateurs consider decent fighting these days." The man saying this was the tall guy who was with the Crane Hermit the day before. He was wearing his green outfit with the baggy yellow pant and arm sleeves under it, and smirking at his opponents while looking down on them. In front of him was the under two foot tall albino kid who was dressed the same way as his partner, and was staring straight ahead at Krillin.

Krillin looked back at the albino kid nervously as the boy was just staring at him. Then, after a few seconds, the boy lifted up a hand and pointed at Krillin, saying, "Midget."

Luffy couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. Krillin went red in the face and pointed at the boy who was half a foot shorter than him, "Who do you think you're calling a midget?"

The small person just stuck his tongue out at Krillin and started wagging it around which only made Krillin angrier. Tien looked down at his partner, "Chiaotzu, stop it. You know it's not polite to make fun of your inferiors. Especially when they're as grossly inadequate as these fools."

"You want to fight?" Luffy growled at the guy taunting him straight to his face.

"Save it for the ring Luffy," Usopp said, holding his captain back.

Tien scoffed at the idiot on his left, then made eye contact with Usopp for a little longer than the long-nosed man liked. "None of them have the slightest chance of surviving the preliminaries, let alone the tournament."

Yamcha walked forward and cracked his knuckles at the man. "Get lost or get hit. It's your choice."

"Judging from your last fight, I'm in no hurry," Tien replied with a cocky smirk. "You had a chance to land a critical blow on your opponent and you let it up."

"Whenever I fight," Yamcha began, "my goal is to defeat my enemy, not to kill him. However if I come up against you, I'll be sure to reconsider that policy."

"Ooooh," Sora said and started laughing at the awesome line.

"Really? Why wait? Fight now," Tien said, and all three of the tall man's eyes glistened as he said it. Yamcha told him he was ready anytime the man wanted, as he wanted to shut him up as soon as possible.

Goku tried to get his friend to stop, but it was only when Jackie Chun walked over that the fight was broken up.

The group went over and watched the annoying guy's next match, only to be stunned by how fast he was as he defeated a sumo wrestler with ease. The rest of the first round matches came and went swiftly. Jackie Chun got his first match and swept the floor with his opponent, as did Usopp who clapped his opponent's templed and kicked him in the chest to send him out of the ring. Even Smoker won without a hitch, not even having to turn into smoke in his first round match before knocking his opponent out. Finally it came to Goku's turn.

At first Goku's friends seemed to think he had this one handled, however when they learned the man's name, Yamcha and Jackie Chun lost their confidence quickly. "Who's King Chapa?" Sora asked, hearing a few other people say his name nervously. "Who is this guy?"

Yamcha spoke nervously, "People say he's one of the strongest men in the world."

Jackie Chun nodded, "The last time he entered the tournament, he won without being touched by a single opponent."

"What? No way!" Krillin exclaimed.

Everyone looked on nervously as the match started, but immediately, Goku got the first blow. Chapa lost his confident attitude and stopped complaining that he had a child as his first match. "I can see this is no ordinary child," he stated, and then he and Goku charged at each other. Chapa barely missed a kick, but as Goku came down for a punch after his dodge, King Chapa caught the boy's fist in his hand. However, Goku spun his leg around which was his real goal the whole time and kicked Chapa multiple times in the chest before bringing back both legs, and kicking the man in the stomach, knocking him down.

"Yeah Goku!" Sora called out.

"Go for it!" Luffy yelled.

Krillin and Yamcha turned to their new friends, and they lost the shock on their faces that Goku was beating King Chapa. The two of them started cheering too as did most of the fighters around the ring who were happy to see Chapa not only get hit, but get knocked down in the tournament like never before.

When King Chapa got back up, he started a technique that Jackie Chun told them was called the Eight Handed Fist. It sounded dangerous, and from the look of bloodlust on Chapa's face, they knew it wasn't going to be pretty. "Now you will know, why I am feared." Chapa told Goku, getting ready for his attack.

Goku started dodging masterfully as Chapa punched so fast that it looked like he had multiple arms. Usopp looked at Luffy for a second and said, "It's like your Gattling Gun technique." Luffy nodded his head, but was too busy watching Goku dodge and block every attack to really care about what Usopp said. Then, Luffy cheered as Goku swept Chapa's feet out from beneath him and taunted the man for leaving his legs unguarded.

In King Chapa's anger, he jumped up to his feet and charged Goku. The grown man with dark skin and a black beard slammed a fist towards Goku, but the child leapt up in the air so fast that only a select few were able to see him. Goku soared up in the air and it didn't look good as he must come down at some point and Chapa was ready for him. "Ah! I can't watch," Usopp said, lifting up his hands to his face as one of the strongest men in the world got ready to slam a fist into Goku's face.

The spiky haired boy dropped farther and farther, then King Chapa punched forward. At that exact moment, Goku opened his mouth and exhaled one of the biggest breaths of his life. The wind from his breath hit the floor of the arena and pushed him up, just enough that King Chapa's fist passed right under him. Then, while everyone gasped and the enemy was off guard, Goku slammed both legs into the man and knocked him right off the arena.

As Goku got off and talked to his friends, the group with the Keybearers gulped at the kid's amazing strength. Krillin told Goku to save some techniques for later, and Goku laughed, saying, "I totally agree with you. That's why I'm saving some of my best techniques for the finals. I can't wait to face the strongest fighters, like you guys," he looked at Yamcha, Krillin, and Jackie Chun with a big smile on his face. The fact that this wasn't even one of his best techniques made the rest of the group gulp again.

The rest of round one went by pretty fast, with a few interesting fights going on. It was finally reaching the end when a guy at stage three called out, "Fighters 105 and 106, please make your way to the stage."

"Well," Sora said, looking around at his friends around him, "I'm up," he said with a bright smile.

"Go get 'em Sora!" Goofy cheered on.

"Kick some butt," Luffy added.

Sora walked away from his friends with a smile on his face, trying to ignore the bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his head. _This is embarrassing. I feel like using my Keyblade is cheating when everyone here has just been using their fists. I don't think I can win without it though. _"Hmm," he hummed to himself as he hopped up on the tournament floor.

Up ahead of Sora was a guy who looked like a bear, but also had very humanlike features too. He was wearing a tan, sleeveless fighting gi so that Sora could see how large his arms were. He lifted up his claws and clashed them against each other a few times to show how sharp they were. The young teen gulped and looked behind him. Right at the edge of the stage, Luffy, Usopp, Goofy, Krillin, Yamcha, Goku, and even that Jackie Chun guy were standing. Some were waving up at him, others called out 'Good luck,' and a few just nodded their heads, getting serious as they looked at Sora's opponent.

"Alright," Sora whispered to himself, calming his nerves and wiping the sweat from his face. He thought back to his island back home, thought about fighting Wakka, and Tidus, and Selphie. _They were strong too, and I never once needed the Keyblade to beat them. Though, I did have my wooden sword… Come on! Focus!_ Sora shook his head and lifted up his fists in front of him, "Bring it on," the kid said, grinning at the bear guy.

Contestant 105 glared at Sora and bared his sharp teeth, snarling at the kid a few times before the judge called out that the match was starting. The bear charged forward, and despite his large mass, he was a lot faster than he looked. He swiped down his right hand at Sora, and the kid leapt up in the air letting the paw pass right beneath him. As it flew under him, it slammed into the arena floor and cut straight through the tiles.

"He's faster than he looks," Jackie Chun said, scratching his white beard while some of the others watching Sora's fight turned to him. "It does not look like his burly figure slows him down at all. Young Sora is at quite the disadvantage."

"Oh no," Krillin exclaimed, turning back to the stage nervously. "You can do it Sora!"

The bear man spun around as soon as he finished his slash and ran to the opposite side of the ring where Sora was descending. The brown haired kid thought about pulling out his Keyblade, but he closed his eyes and thought, _NO!_ _Save it for a later match! You entered to get stronger, now fight!_ Sora reached out his right hand right as the bear man slashed forward at him, and he curled his palm over the front of the bear's claws.

"Aggh," Sora grunted loudly as two of the claws cut straight through the front of his palm and out the back. Blood splashed back and his friends gasped, but then gained confused expressions as Sora's pained look turned into one of a smirking, competitive teen. "Got you," Sora said, and clenched his fingers down around the bear's paw. He twisted his body in midair and swung both of his legs at the surprised bear's head, slamming him right in the left side of his temple.

The furry brown bear fell to the side and his claws came out of Sora's hand. Sora watched as his foe fell and his own eyes went wide at the sight. _My kicks did that much to such a big guy? Whoa!_ Sora did a flip and landed on the ring with his hands risen back up in a fighting stance. His right hand hurt a little, but he wanted to wait until the end of the fight to heal himself. _What was it Riku always said when he'd kick my butt? Yeah, 'no pain, no gain!'_ Sora charged forward as the bear guy was getting up, and the large furry foe slashed back and forth at the smaller human who dodged each of his blows.

_Alright, Donald needs his staff, Merlin needs his wand, and I need my Keyblade, but I saw Leon and Aerith use magic without having weapons in their hands._ As Sora was distracted, he saw the bear lunge at him and swing both arms inwards to try and get him in a bear hug. Sora leapt straight up, right before the bear clenched on him, and he barely escaped the furry man's grip. His friends let out a sigh of relief as it looked like he was going to get caught, but escaped just in the nick of time.

"Ha," a voice laughed behind Sora's friends and they all looked back to see that triclops from before and his short friend grinning at the arena. "That one is one of your friends too?" Tien scoffed at them. "You should be embarrassed."

"Hey! Sora's much stronger than you buddy!" Luffy yelled at the muscular man.

"Hyuck, he's not even using the Keyblade," Goofy added, showing that he knew Sora could be winning much easier now.

Yamcha tilted his head to the side, "Yeah. I've been wondering about that. Didn't your friend with the orange hair say that the monks allowed for Sora to use it as long as it came from his body?"

Usopp nodded his head, then watched as Sora descended from the air with his hands outstretched, pointed at his opponents. The kid looked to be struggling hard with something, but it wasn't working and after a few seconds he was right above the brown-furred enemy's head, and got slammed by a heavy paw to the stomach. "Then what's he doing?!" Krillin exclaimed at the sight of Sora tumbling across the arena until he was almost at the edge. Sora stuck his hands in the ground and skid to the very edge where he finally stopped and was able to get up to his feet.

Sora closed his eyes and held out both of his palms in front of him towards his enemy. "Do the same thing as when the Keyblade is out," he said out loud, hearing the words in his own ears over the shouts from people around the stage for him to open his eyes. "Let the magic flow through me. Donald said to focus it all into one point, and Merlin taught me that it was never in the concentration at all, but the emotions I feel while using it." His breathing calmed down and all the noises around him drowned out except for the footsteps of the bear charging across the arena towards him.

Captain Smoker of the Marines looked at the kid from back in a crowd at a different stage. He didn't gather with the rest of that group, but he was still interested in this boy, especially with what he was doing now. _That kid's going to get himself killed just standing there. What is he-_

"Sora move!" Usopp yelled at the boy.

"Sora!" Krillin, Luffy, Goofy, and Yamcha all yelled together.

Only Goku and Jackie Chun stayed quiet, and their eyes opened wider at the sight of Sora's hands in the second before the bear reached him. "Taste my claws you little brat!" The bear-man yelled, swinging his right and left claws down at the same time.

Tien's three eyes widened from where he was standing behind the group of Sora's friends. Just like Goku and Jackie Chun, he noticed it at the very last second. _That kid's hands._

Sora's eyes snapped open and he stared right into his opponent's. "Fire!" Sora yelled. Out from a point directly in between his right and left hands, a small dot of red appeared. The bear's face became covered in sweat as the front of his body became hot, but in the next second that sweat became tears as a huge ball of fire crashed straight into his chest. It burned through his gi while he was thrown backwards. He landed on the ground and started rolling around to put it out before his fur caught fire too but accidentally rolled right off the stage onto the floor outside the arena.

"C-Contestant 105 is out of the ring," a scared monk who was backing away from the teen called out. "Number 106 advances."

"Woohoo!" Sora cheered, pumping a fist up in the air. He winced as he clenched his right fist to cheer, and the holes in it yelled out in pain. "Guess I can heal up now." He closed his eyes and thought, _Cure._ The boy waited a few seconds, then a few seconds more. Nothing happened and he sighed, "I guess it is a lot easier with the Keyblade." He rose up his left hand and his new golden Keyblade appeared on it. He used the Three Wishes Keyblade that he got from sealing the Keyhole in Agrabah to heal himself, then allowed it to vanish in a cluster of light particles.

When the fourteen year old hopped off the stage, his friends all ran up to him. "Wow Sora, I never knew you could do that," Luffy told the boy.

"Me neither," Sora laughed and started scratching the back of his head while laughing. He held his right fist out in front of him and flexed, grabbing his right bicep with his left hand. "Guess I'm stronger than I look huh?" he asked, this time looking over at Goku and his friends.

"Wow Sora, what do you call that attack you just did?" Goku asked the other boy.

"What do I call it?" Sora asked confusedly. He thought for a second and then shrugged, "It's just Fire magic."

"Magic?!" Krillin exclaimed, sweat coming down both sides of his face at Sora's simple explanation. "But that's impossible!"

"I don't know Krillin," Yamcha told the kid next to him. "The Kamehameha Wave sure is a lot like it."

"The Kamehameha is a martial arts technique!" Jackie Chun snapped at the teenager with black hair who jumped at how angry the old man just got. Master Roshi remembered he was in disguise and cleared his throat, "I mean, I am sure Master Roshi would disapprove of you calling his technique, 'magic.'"

"You're right," Yamcha said, feeling a little nervous at the thought of saying that in front of Master Roshi.

"Great job everyone on your first round fights," they all turned to Goofy who was goofily smiling at the group. "I betcha all of ya' make it to the finals."

"Haha, I hope so Goofy," Usopp told the dog-man next to him. "All I know, is that I'm going to make it for sure." Usopp flexed his huge muscles and grinned at his comrades around him.

"Me too!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Me three!" Sora added.

"Me four!" Yamcha and Krillin both said at the same time, then looked at each other and started arguing which one of them was going to be the fourth.

"Alright, settle down boys," Jackie Chun told them as they all started getting riled up. It seemed like their group was too large for them to all make it through, but now that they checked the brackets again, none of them had to fight each other before the next round at least.

Soon after Sora's fight, the monks started up the second round of the preliminaries and everyone found their fights getting harder than during the first round. Goku and Krillin seemed to get easier opponents as they had hard matches for their first rounds, but the rest of them put in some effort to defeat their opponents. Yamcha defeated a boxer who was pretty good, but had no defense for his kicks. Jackie Chun defeated a very muscular fox-man, and Usopp wrestled a sumo wrestler to the floor before lifting the several hundred pound man over his head, spinning around, and tossing the guy off the arena stage.

Again, Sora was put up against a tough opponent, this time a human. He managed to keep from pulling out his Keyblade again, but he was almost knocked out of the ring twice during the fight. After it was over, the old man with white facial hair and a blue spike over his head walked over to him. Jackie Chun started, "You must be careful my boy. Holding back to get a good fight is fine, but don't risk losing for it."

"I know," Sora told the old man. He smiled at him and added, "Thanks for the advice, but I'm not going to lose."

"You seem mighty confident for someone who got pretty cut up in their last fight," Master Roshi told the boy who just smiled back at him again.

"I know, but," he looked down at his hands and then clenched them into fists. "I can feel myself getting stronger. And I'm going to need to be much stronger if I'm going to save Kairi and the other princesses." Sora shut his mouth fast and he realized that this might be breaking some of Donald's rules. _Well, I never actually mentioned anything about other worlds, but-_

"Princesses? Where?!" Jackie Chun/ Master Roshi exclaimed, his nose starting to bleed.

"Haha," Sora laughed and said to the man, "you're a lot like that Master Roshi guy."

Jackie's eyes widened and he spun around, "What? I am nothing like the great, handsome Master Roshi." He walked away from the boy without saying much else, wanting to keep his identity a secret from as many people as he could.

Once the second round of the preliminaries was over, the judges called all the remaining contestants to the cafeteria for a lunch break. They only had an hour and a half to rest, but Sora told his friends he would use healing magic on all of them so they were all rested for the next matches. He thought it was a great idea, but Goku denied it saying that he didn't need help, and that he would rather win without it. This made Krillin and Yamcha deny the help too, then Luffy and Usopp after him. Sora sighed as it seemed like his idea wasn't very helpful after all, then he had an idea and ran off with half of his food still on his plate.

Sora ran over to the room where the most injured losers were being treated by the tournament's medical staff. "Here, let me help," Sora offered them. The medics turned to the boy as he pulled out a weapon out of nowhere and it glowed green. The first man he helped was covered head to toe in burns, though Sora had no idea how that could have happened without his helping hand. He called out his magic and the doctors looked amazed as the man's burn marks seemed to go away. After about an hour of healing people, Sora used his spell on the very last person in the room who he thought he would need to use 'Cure' on twice to make the man feel better. However, once he called out his spell, it felt like his Keyblade shook and the amount of green light that came out of it was much more than before.

"Wow! I think I just learned Cura," Sora exclaimed, looking around at the totally confused and awed doctors around him. He shook his head as it was clear none of them knew what he was talking about. He ran off excitedly to go tell his friends. _This is great! I already leveled up my fire, blizzard, and thunder magic, so now-_ Sora came skidding to a stop right before he reached the cafeteria where he assumed his friends would still be.

He had a strange feeling in his gut and spun around fast. After a few seconds he chuckled and rose up his right hand, where a golden hilt appeared with a golden shaft sticking out of it. He pointed it down the hall at the four muscular black creatures that just rose out of the ground with beady white eyes and little antennae sticking out of the tops of their heads.

Sora charged his opponents and yelled out, "I knew there had to be Heartless on this world somewhere! Tell me, where is your boss?" He jumped up and slashed at a creature that was punching towards him and his Keyblade slammed into the black fist, then parried off of it. Sora bounced back, then rushed forward faster than before, closing the distance as his enemy was still stumbling back off of the parry. He slashed twice, but before he could finish the combo, two of the other muscular Heartless dove towards him.

"Fast," he whispered, and barely dodge-rolled to the left to evade them. He came out of his roll and pointed his Keyblade up at his enemies. "Thundara!" A cluster of lightning bolts came down on his enemies, shocking them for a few seconds. He tried to use another magic attack, but he could already feel it, his magic was depleted. _Cure takes too much out of me, and Cura probably takes even more now!_ As he was distracted by his lack of magic, one of the four monsters stomped its foot on the ground hard and Sora fell backwards. He landed on his butt and looked up to see three others dropping towards him with fists pulled back. He rose up his Keyblade to block, but he couldn't block all three of them.

In the cafeteria a room over, Yamcha was standing face to face with Tien. The two of them confronted each other again, and even though Jackie Chun tried stepping in, the two were still glaring into each other's eyes and no one could tell whether or not the two of them were about to throw down. All of a sudden, the floor of the cafeteria shook and they all spun their heads to the door on the opposite side of the room.

"What was that?" Goku asked, looking away from his foot for the first time, as he was the one of the only two not paying attention to Tien and Yamcha's potential scuffle. He looked over to the door on the opposite side of the room and for some reason he felt funny.

"Whatever it is, it's not good." Jackie added, letting go of Yamcha's wrist and turning to the door on the opposite side of the room.

Luffy was still eating his food furiously, when out of his right hand suddenly shot his Keyblade. He stared at it in surprise for a second, then he and Usopp looked across the table at each other. The two pirates jumped out of their seats and started running across the room for the other door, when suddenly all the shaking stopped.

The entire room of people stared at the door for a few more seconds, when suddenly it opened up towards them. A single boy walked into the cafeteria with a casual smile on his face. "Sora! Are you alright?" Usopp asked as he reached the boy walking towards them. Sora nodded at his friends and told them he just had to deal with a few big Heartless in the hallway.

Luffy had his Keyblade out, but he noticed that Sora didn't so he lowered his arm and it disappeared again. He looked down at his hands, _Guess the Keyblade knew there were Heartless here even before I did. That's weird._

"There were a few strong Heartless in the hall," Sora said as he approached his friends. He punched a fist forward, "I taught them who's boss."

"So there are Heartless on this world too," Usopp muttered, clenching his fists.

Goofy walked over and stated in his silly voice, "Gawrsh, well Leon said the Heartless would follow the Keyblades. Maybe they just found them." The others looked at the tall dog creature wearing a green shirt and yellow pants with a big yellow hat on his head. He didn't usually sound smart, but sometimes he really made sense.

"You're right," Usopp said in a low voice. "Since we didn't see any until now, unlike every other world we visited, there's a good chance the Heartless just got here."

"Remember Bikini Bottom?" Sora asked the other three. They looked at the teen and he was deep in thought too. Sora continued, "When the Heartless appeared, everyone panicked like they had no idea what was happening."

"But why only these two worlds?" Luffy asked, total confusion on the pirate captain's face as to what was going on.

Usopp scratched his chin, "I think, maybe it's because we went off course. The worlds we've been going to. Maybe, maybe they're leading us somewhere."

"And the Heartless are getting stronger on every world," Sora added, trying to put two and two together. "So, then we are probably getting closer to Maleficent! Right?" He looked around at his friends for confirmation and they all just shrugged at him.

Usopp gave the boy a small smile, "Could be," he offered. Sora smiled back and then before the conversation could continue any further, an announcement was made for everyone to return to the preliminary stages to get ready for the next matches. While the others walked off, Usopp stared at Sora's back, thinking, _Either we're getting closer to Maleficent, or the Heartless are just adapting. If so, soon they will be stronger than we can handle. The worlds will…_ he shook his head and clenched his teeth, _No. We aren't going to let that happen._

* * *

The next round of matches were intense. Every fighter was stronger than the last and the competitors had to battle their way through the toughest matches. While most of them had finished their matches from right after lunch, they heard some commotion coming from a stage on their right and ran over to it.

On the stage was a twenty foot tall man with enormous muscles, stumbling back, and back, and then he toppled off the side of the stage. "Great job Nam!" The group heard someone shout from right next to them and turned to see Goku waving his hand at the man on the stage. The dark-skinned fellow was wearing a turban and a yellow fighting gi, and he walked over to the side and hopped off to walk over to Goku. "That was a great fight Nam," Goku told the man.

"But Nam, why are you here?" Krillin asked. "Does your village need water again?"

The dark-skinned, lean but muscular guy named Nam shook his head. "No, this time I enter the tournament for myself. To test my strength against the best fighter I have ever met," he looked down at Goku and bowed. "I can not thank you enough for what you did for my village." He looked up at the old man with blue hair who was also with them, "And Maste-" he saw the old man shaking his head furiously at him. "Oh right!" Nam said in panic. "I mean, and Jackie Chun for helping my village."

Captain Smoker almost laughed at the slip up that no one else noticed. _Now I'm certain, but I still don't understand why that old man is pretending to be this Jackie Chun fellow._

While the others who were new to the group asked Jackie Chun and Goku how they helped Nam, they suddenly heard a commotion from another stage near them and watched as a man came flying off it. The guy was bald with six dots on his forehead just like Krillin, except much taller and buffer.

The man in an orange and yellow fighting gi jumped up to his feet and pointed at the stage, "Cheater! He used a weapon during the match!"

The judge on the stage looked from the man on the floor, back to the boy on the stage, then to the guy on the floor again. "I'm sorry sir, but he did not enter the ring with any weapon."

"But he's holding it right now!" the man shouted, storming back to the stage and jumping on. He pointed a finger accusingly towards Sora who needed to draw his Keyblade in order to beat this fighter. "Look!"

"It's a part of me," Sora told the man, though he wasn't sounding too sure of himself as he said it. The golden hilt and long blunt shaft shattered into a bunch of shards of white light, which made the fighter yelling at him take a step back, but still yell more at him.

Another judge ran over and started consulting the one from Sora's stage, while the kid himself looked down at his feet. _I knew this was a bad idea. _He looked around and saw a lot of the other fighters glaring at him as well. _Maybe I should just forfeit-_

"Great job Sora!"

"Nice one!"

The fourteen year old turned his head and saw Luffy and Usopp jumping up and down and cheering him on. His blue eyes opened wide and a smile tugged back at his face. Next to his friends, the members of the Turtle Hermit school were smiling as well, and a few of them called congratulations to him.

"The ruling stands," the second judge called out. "As it seems the attack came out of contestant one hundred and six's own body, it is not qualified as a weapon by our rulebooks. Contestant 106 advances."

"Nice," Sora pumped his fist in the air and hopped off the stage, walking towards his friends who were congratulating him. "It was a piece of cake," Sora said proudly, smirking at the group and then looking at the new member with a little confusion. "Who are you?" Sora asked the tall man with darker skin than the rest of them.

"Sora, this is Nam," Jackie Chun introduced the man next to him. "He was a semi-finalist from last year's tournament."

"Really?" Sora asked, looking at the man in surprise.

Nam smiled back at the boy and said, "So you are contestant 106?" The others all looked at Nam confusedly, and the man continued, "I do believe that that means we will be facing each other to determine who makes it into the finals." Sora's eyes widened and the others all looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Oh," Sora said, looking a little nervous suddenly. Then, the nerves were wiped from his face and he grinned at the man in front of him, "Well I'm going to win!"

"I look forward to seeing you try, and to what that strange Key-like weapon can do," Nam told the boy who he didn't see his match, but did see the blade disappear at the end.

Sora looked hesitant all of a sudden, "Wait, so you aren't upset that I can use it?"

"Heh," a mocking voice laughed from the left side of the group. They turned to see the arrogant triclops guy was walking past right when Sora spoke. "Only a weakling would complain about someone else getting to use a weapon. A true fighter would be able to beat you even if you have that pathetic toy."

"Pathetic toy?!" Sora yelled at the guy. "I'll show you how pathetic it is when we meet in the tournament. Oh wait, you probably won't get far enough to face me." The kid smirked at the taller, balder guy who turned and glared at him for that comment while Yamcha, Krillin, and Luffy laughed behind him.

"You don't think _I'll_ make it far enough?" Tien asked, scoffing at the kid's arrogance. He was going to say more, but he heard his number get called and turned away. "I am going to show you just how far I am going to go." He walked away and the group of strong fighters watched him walk up to another stage and get on. He glared straight at his opponent who looked like he was part wolf, and part man, like some sort of Man-Wolf.

When the match started, Sora instantly gulped as he lost sight of the man he was just taunting. Tien appeared behind his opponent, and then glared all the way back at him, making Sora take a small step back. What Tien wasn't expecting, was that Man-Wolf was actually a half-decent fighter, and when he appeared behind him, the furry blue guy spun and slashed at him with his claws. The three-eyed man hopped backwards, barely dodging the end of the wolf's claws.

Then, it was all over before anyone could blink. Tien shot forward and his barrage of punches and kicks was too much for his opponent to keep up with. Man Wolf swung a claw, but all anyone saw were shattered nails flying up in the air as Tien punched him right in the fist. Man Wolf fell to his knees, and then Tien kicked him so hard in the head that half the room gasped thinking his opponent's neck was going to snap.

The judge called him out as the winner, then immediately shouted for medical personnel to come over and take him away. Sora was still a little tired from his last match, but he took a step towards that stage to go and help the wolf guy. As he took that step, he felt a strong steady hand on his shoulder and turned to see Jackie Chun looking him in the eyes. "Sora, I heard what you did for those injured fighters from the first rounds. And though I believe you had their best interests at heart, sometimes a fighter needs to feel pain in order to teach a valuable lesson."

"But, I want to help anyone I can," Sora told the old man next to him who was wearing a very good blue wig. "What if he's seriously hurt?"

"Hmm," Jackie Chun hummed. "Do what you think is right, but I will say it again. You have a great power to be able to heal people, but use it wisely. Many fighters would think themselves unlucky to lose a fight and come out of it without a scratch. It would sully their honor."

Sora closed his eyes, clenching his fists hard as he thought about what the old man was telling him. Then his eyes snapped open, and he ran across the room while Jackie Chun just sighed. Sora ran all the way up to the wolf-guy who was getting carried away, and he pulled out his Keyblade, curing the man. As soon as he did, he ran off, wondering now because of Jackie Chun whether the man would thank him or yell at him because of what he did.

A few more matches went by, until finally it was time for the final round of the preliminaries. Some people had to go more times than others because of the odd number of contestants, but at this point, anyone left who had to fight would be making it into the next round by winning.

Goku's match was first, and again he defeated his opponent with ease. The only match that took him more than a few seconds was his first one against King Chapa. Even his last one, against a man five times his height with muscles ten times as big, was no match for the small boy in an orange gi with a long brown monkey tail sticking out of his pants.

"You know," Usopp started, scratching his beard stubble. "I never asked about it because so many people on this w-, I mean, in this tournament are animals," he corrected himself from mentioning the worlds and had to reprimand himself mentally for almost letting it slip again. He turned to Jackie Chun and the other two besides Goku wearing orange jumpsuits. "But, why does Goku have a tail?"

"I was wondering that too," Sora mentioned, but looked away a little. "Since no one mentioned it though, I kind of thought we shouldn't."

"Well, Goku's just a monkey boy," Yamcha said with a shrug. "Takes a while to get used to, but I mean, we've seen stranger."

"Stranger than that?" Sora asked in surprise. "Like what?"

"Heh, would you believe me if I told you we saw a dragon?" Yamcha asked the kid.

"Whoa," Sora said in awe, and Yamcha sweat-dropped as the kid instantly believed him.

Jackie Chun stared at the teen confusedly, wondering how he just instantly believed that without questioning. Luffy also said that was cool, but Jackie kept staring at Sora, _He does not seem like an unintelligent boy. Most people would doubt the existence of such a creature though._ He looked at the taller, more muscular man next to the kid and stayed confused seeing that Usopp also believed it, and then he chuckled to himself as the funny dog-guy said it was cool too. _That one, I can believe._

The next match after Goku's was a guy named Panput, who was up against Krillin. Krillin told his friends to wish him luck, then he ran up on the stage, and did the same thing Goku did by knocking his opponent out of the ring in one shot. Everyone started shouting how Pamput was an amazing boxer, how he was the top of the world in his profession, but he didn't last ten seconds with Krillin. As Jackie Chun explained it while Krillin walked over, it was not one shot, but three separate punches Krillin hit the man with in this chest, right before kicking him in the face.

"Four hits in that short a time?" Sora asked in awe, then saw Krillin smirking at him as he approached and tried not to look so amazed. He did however, say, "Good job," when the bald kid his age, but a foot shorter, walked up to him.

Krillin was planning on bragging to Sora's face, but after the kid congratulated him, he hesitated then just smirked and scratched the side of his face a little. "Ah it was nothing. Now that the finals are coming, I can really start showing what I've got."

"Yay Krillin," Goku exclaimed and started dancing around with his best friend. "We made it to the finals again!"

"Yeah, that was an impressive match," Usopp told the boy. "Though that second punch was a little too close to the family jewels." Usopp looked a little nervous at the thought of such a strong kid punching him in the nuts, but the Turtle Hermit school's students looked at him in surprise for another reason.

Jackie Chun looked at the muscular, tan-skinned man next to him. He did not look much stronger than many of the other buff figures in the room, but he seemed to have a good eye to be able to judge a single one of Krillin's fast punches. Just as he was watching the man in a white toga, Usopp lifted up his head a little hearing his number get called. He turned to the side and flashed his friends a smile, before leaping up in the air and doing a front flip on top of the stage.

As soon as he got up there, Yamcha groaned because he heard his name be called from another stage nearby. "I really wanted to see this fight," he complained as he turned and started walking away.

"Don't worry, there won't be much to see," a voice said walking the other way. Yamcha and the man turned towards each other, and the guy walking towards Usopp's stage turned out to be the guy with three eyes from before. Tien smirked while looking at Yamcha, "I'm sure it will be over quickly." He walked the rest of his way to the stage and hopped up.

Tien's shirt and undershirt were gone since he took them off before his first match after lunch. Usopp looked across the stage to the other extremely muscular fighter who he had seen a few of his matches. _This guy is brutal, but he's also one of the strongest people in this room. I'll need to think smart._

"Too bad, this is as far as you're going to make it," Tien mocked his opponent.

Usopp glared into his enemy's eyes and then closed his eyes. **_"If you ever lose your sword in the middle of the battle, which you shouldn't because it's an extension of your body! Anyway Captain Laserblades, if you ever lose your sword, or if your weapon breaks, it does not mean the fight is over. The stance for fighting with your fists is different that with a sword though. Like this."_** Usopp opened back up his eyes and turned his body to the side, lifting up his arms into a fighting stance that he felt he didn't need for most of the other matches. In his mind suddenly flashed the last time he used this stance, and Maleficent's face appeared in his mind right before he recalled the dozen meteors, thorny vines, and green flames that devastated him in his battle with her. _I will not let myself lose again, not like in Agrabah. It's my fault Jasmine was taken. I need to redeem myself, right here!_

"Match begin!" The judge called out.

Usopp pressed his feet down hard on the tiles beneath him and then kicked off the floor. Tien had watched a few of this man's former fights, but never before had Usopp shown such speed. He rose up his arms and blocked the kick that came flying at him. He uncrossed his arms to try and punch the man, but Usopp backflipped off of the kick to avoid being hit. He landed on his hands and then flipped again back on his feet where he got in his stance and lifted up his right arm to block Tien's first strike.

Tien's left kick slammed into Usopp's right arm and the men pushed against each other for a few seconds. _He's strong!_ Usopp thought, having to raise his other hand to push against his blocking arm in order to steady it.

_This man is not even a member of the worthless Turtle Hermit's school. How is such an amateur blocking my kick?_ Tien frowned angrily and spun his other leg, catching Usopp on the other side and making the man in a white togo slide back across the floor. Tien sprinted after him and punched over and over while Usopp crossed his arms to try and block them all. He saw fists flying at him so fast that it was getting hard to dodge and block them all. A few got past and slammed into his chest, but he remained on his feet until Tien moved faster than before and came up behind him, slamming a leg into his back.

Usopp hit the floor and skid across it almost all the way to the edge. Tien stopped moving for a second and stood up straight, glaring over at Usopp who staggered up on his feet, then spun with a determined look in his eyes. "Pathetic," the triclops said, grinning mockingly at his foe. "I'm surprised they let such losers into the tournament."

"Hey! Usopp's not a loser!" Luffy yelled from the side of the ring. "He's going to kick your butt!"

Usopp smiled a little as Tien looked over and glared at his captain. _Thanks Luffy, I needed that._ The sweat on Usopp's face went away and the man stomped his feet down on the floor, pushing the tiles down beneath him with his strength. "I'll have you know I defeated the top hundred strongest men in the world in single combat," Usopp bragged, lifting up his right hand as he did and grabbing the white sash over his shoulder.

The liar slid the sash off and let it drop to his side so that all he had on was the white cloth around his waist. He clenched his fists tightly and lifted them up on either side of his body, while Tien stared at the scar going from his shoulder all the way across his body to his waist. "I did not get to where I am today," Usopp continued through a strained voice as his muscles bulked a little more. "By losing to freaks, like you!" Usopp yelled and then charged across the arena towards his opponent.

_He's faster than before,_ Tien thought as he had to raise up his hands and block each one of Usopp's punches as the man arrived. He saw Usopp fully extend his arm in a punch that went past his face, and he ducked down followed by a chop up into Usopp's armpit. The gladiator winced, but kept from screaming out in pain and brought down his other elbow towards the man crouched in front of him. Tien saw the elbow coming down and he swept out a leg, taking Usopp's feet out from under him and making the incoming elbow miss.

While Usopp fell, he swung a fist from his arm screaming in pain after Tien hit him in the armpit. As he punched, he heard a crack in his own shoulder, but Tien wasn't expecting a fist from the arm he thought he dislocated, and the fist collided with his chest, knocking him back across the floor. Tien skid backwards while Usopp landed flat on his stomach. The muscular young pirate heard his friends calling out his name and he knew his opponent would be charging right back towards him. He pushed both hands down beneath him, then pressed down hard, throwing himself high up right as Tien was bringing down a foot towards him. His back slammed into the bottom of Tien's leg faster than the martial artist was prepared for, and Tien was knocked backwards. He stumbled back on one foot, and right as he regained balance with his other, Usopp was coming down with both hands pulled together in a fist towards Tien's bald skull.

Tien reached up both hands, and caught Usopp by the wrists as the man fell in front of him. Usopp was surprised he got caught in midair, but he used it to his advantage and kicked forward both of his legs. He kneed Tien in the chest over and over, but suddenly the man in front of him started laughing, and laughing even harder as Usopp continued to knee him. He clenched harder on Usopp's wrists, and the former sharpshooter clenched his eyes in pain and opened his mouth, but closed it again, refusing to scream out in pain. "A tough guy huh? Let's change that," Tien tossed him up in the air, then jumped up after him. Usopp managed to open his eyes again, just in time to see the knuckles as they collided with his face.

Only a few people were able to fully see how many times Tien slammed his fists and legs into Usopp while the other man could not fight back. "Usopp!" Sora shouted at the man in the sky who was being hit by a flurry of blows. "Fight back!"

"Usopp!"

"Us-" Luffy started, then dropped his jaw as Tien lifted up both fists above Usopp's head like the man with the long nose did for him a minute ago. Only this time, Tien's attack followed through. Both of his fists crashed down on Usopp's skull, slamming the man's jaw closed so his teeth chattered together, making blood spurt out of his nose and his eyes to roll back into his head. Luffy's eyes widened and the black pupils got larger with a smaller white dot in the middle for a second, "USOPP!"

The tan-skinned man crashed down into the stage below and did not move an inch. Tien landed next to him and laughed at the fool lying on the ground next to him who thought he would pose a challenge. "As I said, pathetic," he laughed and turned away, walking off the stage as the judges called out that he was the victor.

Yamcha was running back over to the arena to see what happened, when he saw Tien walking his way with a cocky smirk on his face. Behind him, he could see Goku and the others running up on the stage with worried looks on their faces. Yamcha glowered at the three-eyed man, "What did you do?" He snarled at him. "What happened to Usopp?"

"Ha! That idiot?" He motioned with his head back to the stage he was walking away from. "You should just be glad I let him live."

Yamcha glared into Tien's eyes, all three of them. "When we meet in the finals, I'm going to teach you a lesson you won't soon forget," Yamcha growled at him.

"Wow, I'm amazed you made it. I could never do what you do. Survive on blind luck alone," Tien shook his head as if in disbelief that someone could possibly be so stupidly lucky.

"We'll see if it's luck when I'm kicking your teeth in," Yamcha replied.

"It's so sad when losers mistake their luck for actual skill," Tien said then started laughing. He would have continued to laugh, if he didn't hear the number of someone he actually wanted to watch fight. He turned from Yamcha and glanced at him, "We'll continue this in the ring."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Yamcha retorted.

Over at Stage 2, two fighters were getting up on the stage and facing each other. Luffy kept looking back over his shoulder at the other stage where Sora was holding his Keyblade over Usopp, but even his Cure magic didn't wake up the man who had blood seeping out of his eyes after that final blow.

The bump was hard to see under all of Usopp's thick curly hair, but Sora was feeling around for it and even after his magic the bump was still huge. He just sighed in relief that Usopp's head didn't crack open completely.

While he was helping Usopp, Goku and Krillin were angrily looking over towards Tien who was at the stage next to them. Yamcha walked over to his younger friends and growled, "I can't believe that guy."

"He was already winning," Krillin said in his high-pitched voice. "There was no need for him to be so brutal."

Goku just growled in agreement, and then all three of them saw why the man was standing in front of Luffy's stage. Standing in front of the skinny pirate, was a boy only a foot tall, maybe a little more. He had pale white skin and a black hat over his dome. He was wearing the same yellow baggy clothes and green cover that his older friend Tien had on earlier.

"Finish him quickly Chiaotzu," Tien told the shorter member of the Crane school.

Jackie Chun and the boys from the Turtle Hermit school walked over to the stage as well, looking back one more time at Usopp and Sora before heading there. As they turned back and walked over to see Luffy fight this small figure, Jackie Chun froze and turned around as he heard his number get called as well. "Well, I'll see you boys later," he told the kids in orange gis around him.

"Aw Jackie, you're fighting now too?" Goku asked disappointedly, wanting to watch his new friend Luffy and his old friend Jackie Chun fight.

"Oh don't worry," the old man with a blue wig said to them. "I believe that I may be able to win this fight as well. Wish me luck boys," he turned and walked over towards Stage 4.

"Good luck!" Goku called after the man.

Up on the stage in front of Goku and his friends, Luffy kept looking over at Usopp while the match got ready. The small person in front of him looked over where Luffy was facing, then looked back at the man in front of him. "If you're his friend," the little guy spoke in a really high-pitched voice, "then you must be very weak."

Luffy kept staring at Usopp for a few seconds, though his head did twitch and his eyes narrowed. He slowly turned towards the little man in front of him, and recognized the uniform the boy was wearing. "So you're with him?" Luffy asked dangerously, his eyes darting to the man behind Chiaotzu. Tien saw the pirate's gaze, and he immediately knew this teenager in front of him was stronger than the man he just defeated.

Tien looked at his partner's back and spoke telepathically to him, _**"Chiaotzu, be careful. I am sure he is no match for you, but he is a strong opponent. Do not hold back as much as in your previous matches."**_

The little guy looked back and nodded at the man behind him, but as he looked back forward his eyes widened to see the skinny figure in a red tank top open down the middle standing right in front of him. Luffy had on a pair of blue pants rolled up to his knees, and he reached behind his back, grabbing the hat he had resting there and placing it on top of his head. "Don't speak badly about Usopp," Luffy said in a low voice to the smaller figure in front of him.

The judge looked at these two fighters and he gulped before raising up his hand, "Let the match, begin!"

"Why's that?' Chiaotzu asked his opponent, regarding Luffy's last order. "He's weak-"

Luffy slammed his fist forward towards the small guy's face. Chiaotzu's eyes widened at how fast the fist was approaching and he had to leap up to get away from it. Luffy was able to follow his movements though and watched as the small figure reached the top of his arc, then punched towards him.

Krillin grinned from the side of the arena, "He's got him!"

Right as Luffy's fist was about to hit Chiaotzu however, the little man lifted higher up in the air over Luffy's fist. The pirate snapped his arm back to his side, his rubber powers shocking the people around him once again at how strange they were. Still, what shocked people even more perhaps, was the fact that Chiaotzu was not coming down. The pale boy floated up in the air with his arms at his sides, smiling down at Luffy who had a confused look on his face.

"He's flying!" Yamcha exclaimed in surprise as he had never seen anything like this before.

Luffy just kept glaring up at the man in the sky. _This one's for Usopp._ He saw how fast that little man moved to dodge both of his fists, and he knew he was not going to hit him at this speed. Before Luffy could make a move however, Chiaotzu descended from the air quickly and appeared right behind Luffy's head. The pirate was only mid-turn when the boy kicked him in the left temple.

Tien smirked as it looked like Chiaotzu might have ended the fight right there, as Luffy's head snapped to the side so far it looked like it might have broken. Then, his neck extended out and his head snapped right back into place. "That won't work," Luffy laughed, spinning on his left foot and raising his right leg at the same time. "Because I'm rubber!" He slammed his leg out towards the smaller figure who backed out of his range, but then lowered his bottom lip as Luffy's foot extended and crashed into his stomach. "Gum Gum Stamp!"

The smaller fighter went flying back and everyone looked closely as he neared the wall on the other side of the ring. Right as he was about to hit it, he stopped in midair. The little man floated up high and panted a few times while glaring down at Luffy. "Chiaotzu! No more playing around!" Tien called up at his pale-faced partner. "Finish him off!"

"You can do it Luffy!" a voice yelled, making Tien and many of the others at the stage turn around.

Standing back near Stage 1, standing tall, was the man in a white toga with the sash back over his shoulder. He did not even look over at a shocked Tien, just kept looking at his Captain on the arena floor. "Kick his butt Luffy!" Usopp shouted at the younger man who used to be the same age as him.

"Usopp," Luffy whispered as he glanced over and saw his comrade doing alright. "Yosh!" He turned back and faced the sky where his opponent was looking down at him. "Come down here!" Luffy yelled up in the air, then rose up his right bicep and grabbed it with his left hand. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Haha," Chiaotzu laughed down at the pirate. He rose up his right finger to the side of his head and everyone looked closely as a small ball of yellow light formed on it. The tiny ball grew bigger and sparks flew from it as Chiaotzu looked down into Luffy's confused eyes, "Dodon Ray!" He yelled, pointing his finger down at the arena floor.

Luffy saw the attack coming close and got ready to take it, when suddenly he imagined that ball colliding with his body and bursting him into flames. His eyes widened as the vision stopped and the attack was almost upon him. He leapt to the right and the ball crashed into the floor where he was just standing, exploding in a fireball. "Ah, that was going to burn me!" He landed and then looked up, only to go wide-eyed at three more of those Dodon Rays coming down towards him.

"Dodon?" Goku questioned as he heard the attack name that was being shouted by Chiaotzu. "I swear I've heard that attack before," he scratched his chin trying to think back on where he had heard of it.

As Luffy jumped around on the stage dodging all the attacks, Tien turned his head over to Goku. He marched over and glared down at the younger boy, "What do you mean you've heard that attack before?"

Goku turned and glared at the guy who hurt Usopp a minute ago. "I remember now. Mercenary Tao used it when I defeated him."

"What?!" Tien shouted. "There's no way a punk like you could have beaten Tao."

"It's the truth," Goku replied, angry that the guy was doubting his word. "Tao killed my friend's father, so we fought each other. When he lost, he tried throwing a grenade at me and I kicked it back at him. He got caught in the explosion."

Tien's face covered in sweat as he glared down at the kid with shaking hands of anger. _Tao was one of the strongest men I've ever known. It's impossible for a brat like this to have beaten him._

Another explosion rang out on the arena and everyone looked to see Luffy barely made it away from that one. The pirate patted down the front of his shirt that had caught fire and finally had to take it off and throw it to the side where it burst into flames. "Grrr," he growled at the loss of his favorite shirt. He snapped his head up in the air and finally realized why another Dodon Ray hadn't come down yet. Up in the air above their tournament stage, Chiaotzu was holding up his right hand again, only this time the size of the Dodon was much larger than any time before. He held of a glowing yellow ball that was at least ten times the size of his own body and kept pulsing golden light.

All of the other fighters around the room looked over in awe at the enormous attack forming in Chiaotzu's hand. Luffy himself went wide-eyed as it grew even larger, and he finally gritted his teeth and slammed his hands down on his knees. "Alright," the pirate in a straw hat growled, "Gear, Second!" He pressed down on his knees and his legs from below the knee all the way to his feet pumped. His legs pressed down like a couple of accordions and then extended back to normal.

"What was that?" Goku asked in surprise.

"Go for it Luffy!" Sora called out from next to Usopp.

"You can do it, hyuck!" Sora snapped his head to the right and saw Goofy was right with him, cheering on Luffy. Goofy smiled at the teenager on the fighting stage and shouted, "Luffy!" Sora smiled and turned back, then yelled out his friend's name too.

Chiaotzu finally felt his huge ball of energy was big enough, and he threw it down at the stage below. "DODON RAY!" Most of the other fighters in the room backed up far, but Luffy just stood in place while his skin turned red and steam came off of him. The ball crashed into the stage and the explosion was so large that Goku, Tien, Sora, and everyone else had to shield their faces with their arms as the heat from it pressed against them. Debris flew everywhere and Chiaotzu just stared down at the top of his explosion that covered the entire center of the stage.

"That's one crazy attack," Sora muttered as he finally lowered his arms from his face. He looked up in the air, surprising Goofy and Usopp who were staring at the smoke of the explosion, looking around for the captain. Usopp suddenly noticed that the boy with spiky black hair on his right and the tall bald man weren't looking down at the explosion either, and he snapped his head up in the air.

Tien stared up at his partner and shouted, "Chiaotzu! Behind you!"

The little man got midway through turning when Luffy appeared to the rest of the participants' eyes who couldn't see him before. Luffy had his left palm pointed towards the small man, and his right fist clenched next to him. Chiaotzu looked terrified as Luffy showed up behind him, not because of his sudden arrival, but because of the enraged snarl on Luffy's face. It was hard for Luffy not to grind his teeth like this with the amount of pain he was in after transforming into this form. _At least I did it in one pump this time,_ he thought, while slamming his right fist forward so fast that Chiaotzu was barely able to lean back away from it.

Still, the punch was strong enough to make Chiaotzu's head snap to the side and some blood to come out of his mouth. Luffy continued with his punches, and they started moving so fast that it looked like he had dozens of hands punching at Chiaotzu at the same time. Chiaotzu was dodging back and forth, but as the fists moved faster and faster, he stopped being able to dodge them all. Luffy was dropping down towards the stage, since unlike Chiaotzu he could not fly, but he wanted one last hit before he was done and threw his right leg all the way up.

His right foot crashed through the ceiling and kept rising higher and higher.

Over in the waiting area nearby the preliminary room, hundreds of people and anthropomorphic animals looked up over the building at the foot extending higher and higher up into the air. Nami and Robin were walking back towards their new friends sitting at a table when they saw the extending steaming foot up above the building. Nami pumped her right fist in the air, "Go for it Luffy!"

Bulma and the others sitting at the table looked over to see Nami smiling at the building while she shouted that. The blue haired woman looked back over at the building and her eyes turned huge, "That's Luffy?!" She exclaimed, suddenly putting a lot more thought into that bet she made with Nami.

Inside the tournament room, everyone gawking up at the ceiling only did so for a second longer, before Luffy slammed his risen leg back down through the roof. "Gum Gum, JET AXE!" He slammed his foot down right on Chiaotzu's head and the midget dropped out of the air like a missile, until Luffy's foot slammed him into the tournament stage and down into the ground. The stage split in half and chunks of it went flying in every direction.

Sora rose up his arms again to block from debris just like he had to block Chiaotzu's explosion not long before. When he lowered his arms he watched Luffy drop down and land on one side of the crack going through the stage. There was a large hole in the middle of the arena with two cracks going out to either edge from the hole. Scorch marks covered most of the ring, and Luffy spat to his side as he landed. As his feet touched the ground the steam stopped coming off his body, his Gear Second wearing off.

Tien had his lower jaw dropped, but slowly it closed again even while most other people in the room shouted in shock. He stared at the stage seriously and glared right at Luffy, but then his attention shifted to the hole in the stage. _**"Get up Chiaotzu."**_

"Great job Luffy!" Krillin called up to the pirate. "You taught that freak what for!"

"Woohoo!" Sora cheered.

Luffy turned to his friends and looked right at Usopp. He grinned at the long nosed man and his friend smiled back at him. Usopp didn't need to say anything, he and Luffy both knew that was a fight to avenge his loss in the one previous. While Usopp smiled at his captain however, his eyes started getting wider and wider and Luffy spun around to where Usopp's gaze was pointed. Luffy became shocked himself at the sight of Chiaotzu floating up out of the hole in the stage.

The judge who was walking over to the hole in order to call the match fell backwards when he saw the little guy covered in cuts and bruises lifting out of the floor. Chiaotzu frowned deeply at Luffy and then his body started spinning around. He spun so fast it was hard to see his face anymore, and he turned sideways so he was parallel to the arena floor. His black hat had come off when he was hit by Luffy's steaming foot, and his pure white head glistened as he shot towards Luffy like a bullet. Luffy tried punching the small man, but Chiaotzu's spinning head pushed his fist to the side and the boy kept flying, slamming straight into Luffy's chest.

Luffy slammed to the ground and tumbled back across one side of the arena. He got up to his feet and jumped to the left as the spinning, flying boy almost crashed into him again. Luffy threw both of his arms far behind his back, "I'm winning this!" The pirate yelled, putting his hands together so far back he was almost touching the wall near the entrance to the building. "Gum Gum-"

The spinning kid suddenly stopped spinning right in front of Luffy and he pointed his right index finger forward instead. "Dodon Ray!" He yelled, right as Luffy started bringing forward his Gum Gum Bazooka. Luffy's eyes went wide and he tried to shout out the last word of his attack, but the ball of yellow light slammed into him first. The room filled with light as an explosion blasted over Luffy.

"Luffy!" Sora and Usopp yelled at the same time.

"Oh no!" Goofy exclaimed. He looked at the stage where a huge blast of fire erupted followed by a cloud of smoke. The dog brought up his gloves to his face, "Uh oh." He thought about how King Mickey entrusted him and Donald to follow the Key, yet he just let one of the Keybearers…

"As I thought," Tien laughed from next to the group of fighters watching the match. "In the end he was no match for Chiaotzu's skills."

Said fighter was smiling at the explosion in front of him, and he lowered down to the ground. The short man planted his feet in their black shoes to the floor, then turned to start walking away. "This match is over," he bragged. He took one more step and then his face covered in sweat, making him stop moving. The smoke behind him was clearing and everyone else watching the stage gasped at the sight of the figure standing in the smoke, covered in burns.

Luffy's head was bowed and his bangs were singed from underneath his hat. Luffy reached up his right hand slowly and grabbed the hat on top of his head. He took it off and looked at the front of it, to see there was some black from where the flames of the explosion burnt his hat. Usopp dropped his jaw a little and muttered, "Uh oh." Sora and Goofy looked in towards their friend who gulped in front of them. "Luffy really doesn't like it when people touch his hat. It's his treasure."

As Usopp was saying it, Luffy stated, "Usopp. Catch." The long nosed man was surprised, but lifted up his hands and carefully caught his captain's hat as it was tossed to him. Luffy took a step out of the clearing smoke towards his opponent, and he started rising up his fists again. "You bastards hurt my friends, made fun of my nakama," Luffy threw one of his hands far back behind his body and it spun around and around.

"Now Chiaotzu!" Tien yelled. "Don't hold back!"

"Haa!" Chiaotzu yelled, rising up his hands at the pirate in front of him. His hands seemed to glow yellow for a second, and Luffy dropped down to his knees, his arm snapping back to his side as he yelled out in pain. "Hahaha!" Chiaotzu laughed as Luffy started moaning and groaning at the pain.

"My, stomach," Luffy sputtered out as his face turned blue. _My insides feel like they're being clenched. I can't, move._ He lifted up his head a little while grabbing his stomach with both hands. Chiaotzu floated up in the air a little and then hovered straight up to him. The little guy looked Luffy straight in the eyes, then in an instant he had a knee slammed into the side of Luffy's face. The pirate just sat there on his knees while Chiaotzu kicked back and forth, over and over again into Luffy's face and body.

"Stop it," Luffy growled, then oofed and winced as he was hit two more times, both by Chiaotzu's legs. The boy never punched him, just kept his hands pointed out towards Luffy while the pirate groaned in agony, his body tearing itself apart from the inside.

"What's happening to him?" Sora asked loudly, looking around to see if anyone knew.

"How many secret techniques does this guy know?!" Krillin exclaimed angrily.

Luffy lifted his head some more as Chiaotzu slammed his left foot into his face again. This time, Luffy pushed his face right into the kick and then kept turning, making Chiaotzu sweat as he made eye contact with the pirate. Luffy slammed his clenched right hand down on the already broken stage hard, and cracks shot out around his fist. He let go of his aching stomach with his other hand too, and slammed that one down as a fist. Chiaotzu started floating back while his partner stared at Luffy in shock, _That's impossible. No one should be able to escape from Chiaotzu in that position!_

The pirate whose clothes were torn, whose hat was charred, whose body was burned, whose friends were injured right in front of his eyes, stood up on one leg followed right by the other. Chiaotzu glared harder at his opponent, even as he floated back through the air, but he never once lowered his hands from in front of him. Luffy stood there, unable to move his arms anymore as his body screamed out in pain. _Hit him! Punch him! AAHHHH MY STOMACH!_ His hands twitched to clench his torso again, but he resisted the urge and just bowed his head. "I won't lose," he growled, his voice dangerously low. "I need to get stronger," his hands clenched and the pain became bearable.

Across the room, two men were facing off against each other from different sides of a stage. Both of them felt the shift in the air and they spun, looking back across the room at another stage that had been drawing their attention for a while now. Smoker's eyes tripled in size and his bottom lip lowered. "There's no way," he whispered.

Luffy snapped his head up and glared straight into Chiaotzu's eyes. Wind raced around him and dust lifted up as he did. The rubberman's black pupils dilated and a smaller white circle appeared in the center of them.** "You won't stand in my way!"** He yelled at the pale child in front of him. Out from Luffy's body exuded a force of energy that slammed straight into Chiaotzu, but also slammed out in every direction around Luffy.

Krillin and Yamcha's eyes popped out of their sockets and they stuck their tongues out at the sudden burst of energy. They heard thuds behind them and turned around only to drop their jaws further as the majority of the people in the room collapsed. Their eyes rolled back into their heads and Luffy's strange aura made them drop down to the ground.

Smoker stared straight over at Luffy while almost everyone between them collapsed to the ground in the rush of aura.

The boy in front of Luffy lowered his arms down, his entire body covering in sweat as he felt his will breaking. He looked down at his hands as they lowered, wondering what was happening. Chiaotzu heard Tien call his name, and he snapped his head back up, only to see Luffy with his spinning arm all the way back again. He tried raising up his arms, but Luffy was already throwing his spinning arm forward this time. "Gum Gum RIFLE!"

"That turtle is probably lost, or maybe he just ran away," Master Shen said, then laughed at the group of women sitting at a table in front of him. "He knows his students don't stand a chance against my own."

As Bulma opened her mouth to shout a retort at the old geezer, everyone in the waiting area spun around hearing a loud crash. They all looked over towards the large building where the preliminaries were taking place, and watched as an entire section of the wall got knocked down and debris flew outwards towards them.

Nami sighed as she saw Luffy breaking the building again, but then she smirked wide seeing what it was on the end of that long extending fist. "What was that you were saying about your students making it to the finals?" Nami asked the annoying old man in front of her. "You must be going senile. Isn't that one of them there?"

The Crane Hermit's jaw dropped at the sight of the wall breaking, but even more so as he saw what Nami was talking about. "Chiaotzu!" he yelled in fury. "How dare you disappoint me like this?!" He watched as the small boy dropped with the rest of the debris and landed on the ground _far_ outside the arena.

Inside the building, Luffy's arm snapped back to his body and he took a deep breath seeing that his opponent was knocked out. He looked around to see if the judges would call his match, but then tilted his head in confusion as the judge for his match was unconscious next to the stage. "What happened to him?" Luffy asked, turning towards Usopp and the rest of them. His eyes opened a little wider as other than Usopp, Sora, Goofy, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Jackie Chun, Tien, and a small handful of other people, everyone was knocked out. "What happened to everyone?" he asked again, this time looking around the room at the dozens of knocked out people all around him.

"Well this sure is interesting," Jackie said after getting over his shock. He looked across the stage to the shocked man across from him who he hadn't really started his match against yet. "It seems that our officiator has been incapacitated," he said with a laugh. Smoker finally got over his shock just enough to glance over at Master Roshi in his disguise. The old man continued, "Why don't we take a small break before our match then. We will need a judge to continue after all."

Smoker nodded his head slowly, then watched as the old man hopped off the stage. He looked over towards Stage 2 where everyone was gathered around Luffy. _Straw Hat knows Haki of the Conquering King. I never would have guessed. With that power he could become one of the most feared pirates on the sea, if he ever learned how to control it properly. I shouldn't give him that chance… _Smoker clenched his teeth as he glared over at the young man, laughing and scratching the back of his head in confusion. _Forget about pirates and the sea! The ocean is gone! The world is gone! With that strength, maybe he would be able to fight someone like Maleficent. NO! As soon as I consider these pirates as allies, is the minute I lose all honor as a Marine. Straw Hat, _his eyes narrowed across the room at the dangerous pirate, _I swore I would take you down, and that's what I'm going to do._

* * *

**A/N Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, the really, really long chapter. XD Anyway, leave a review telling me what you think: your reactions for the chapter, predictions for the next one, or any other comments. I'm still writing the next chapter but I'll post it as soon as I'm finished with it.**

avatoa chapter 16 . Jun 22

Oh sweet fudge, here we go.

**Haha, the tournament has begun! I was trying to think of another cool world that would make the characters stronger, and nothing like a world based around fighting to help out with that! **

Guest chapter 16 . Jun 22

Nice addition with Bulma and Oolong! does that mean we are going to see Son Goku (I'm assuming Dragon Ball era) at some point further down the road?

Im liking how you handled Luffy's character struggle with Zoro's turn to the "darkside" , it seems to be very in character!

**Yep! We definitely got some Son Goku in here, and you were right, it is Dragon Ball era Goku. Putting them into Dragon Ball Z would have been a little hard for Sora and Luffy, but here they've got a chance to really show their stuff. Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like the Zoro turning evil bit!**

**Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	18. Chapter 18

**BLP 18:**

"So all three of you made it to the next round? That's great!" Bulma exclaimed, smiling at the three boys in orange gis standing in front of her.

"Usopp you dolt, what were you doing in there?" Nami scolded the muscular man in front of her who came back only with news of his defeat. She saw something out the corner of her eye and snapped her head that way as well, "And you!" The dog that was slowly trying to sneak away shot to attention and saluted the woman. "Aren't you supposed to be the royal knight? How did you lose?!"

"Gawrsh Nami, I'm sorry," Goofy apologized, shifting his weight from one foot to the other with a sad look on his face.

Nami's own heart felt sad just looking at the dejected dog and she said softer, "Oh it's fine Goofy."

"Well I feel much better," Usopp said, but then Nami snapped her attention back to him and kept glaring.

"Just because it's okay for him, doesn't mean it is for you Mr. Hero." She scolded, leaning over him and glaring down into his eyes. "What have you been doing these last three years?"

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed as Nami yelled at the other two.

Robin turned to her captain and gave the younger man a small smile. "I heard you did quite well Captain-san."

"You should have seen him," Krillin exclaimed to the black haired woman. "Just by looking at that Chiaotzu guy he knocked out half of the competitors! I've never seen anything like it!"

Robin's eyes opened a little wider and she looked back at her Captain in surprise. _I've never seen it before, but I have heard rumors. _She looked to her right and from the look on Captain Smoker's face, it seemed that those rumors were true. _Haki of the Conquering King, Conqueror's Haki. Only a few are said to ever be born with it. _She looked back at her captain and the smile reappeared on her face, _You truly are an amazing man._

"Thanks Robin," Luffy told her for her congratulations. "It was a tough fight though," he admitted, which kind of annoyed him considering how much that small guy pissed him off.

"Well I'm glad you beat him," Krillin said. "That little guy was giving me the creeps."

"The look on that bastard's face when his friend got knocked out was priceless," Yamcha laughed, thinking about the panic on Tien's face at that moment.

"And I'm sure the Crane Hermit isn't too pleased either," Bulma added with a laugh. "His jaw was dropped so far I'm surprised he didn't swallow some bugs."

"By the way Bulma," Goku started, making the blue haired older girl look down at her short friend. "Where is Master Roshi?"

The pink pig with them snorted and shrugged his shoulders. Goku turned to his friend and Oolong started, "He's been gone almost since we got here. The old man's probably trying to sneak into the girl's bathroom."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Bulma agreed.

"Hey," a voice snapped from behind them and the whole group spun around. Standing there was a man in a black suit wearing a black hat and sunglasses. "I'm gone for just a little while and you start talking about me behind my back?" Roshi asked in annoyance. "If you must know, I was secretly watching the preliminaries."

"You saw?" Goku asked excitedly.

Roshi nodded and looked to the three of his students in their orange gis with the turtle school's symbol on the back. "All three of you have improved greatly. I am not surprised you made it into the finals with ease."

Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha beamed at their Master's praise. Goku turned to the others after a few seconds and mentioned, "Do you guys know if Jackie won his fight?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Yamcha suggested, nodding his head over to the silent Marine with gray hair.

Before anyone could ask, Smoker growled in a loud voice, "Our match was interrupted." He looked back over towards the group and stared at Master Roshi for a few seconds, looking straight into the old man's eyes. Now, Master Roshi had convinced a lot of people that he and Jackie Chun were not the same person, but something told him even attempting to tell this man otherwise was not going to work out well.

Robin followed Smoker's gaze for the few seconds he was looking at Master Roshi, and a small smile came to her face. _That facial hair is unmistakeable. I bet he still has his blue wig under that hat._ She giggled to herself then noticed Smoker start glaring pretty harshly over at Luffy. Her own eyes narrowed as she saw the movement of his eyes, _His look is different. He's not playing around anymore._ She turned back to her captain and started putting the pieces together, _The Marines would not allow pirates with the Conqueror's Haki to stay alive. Smoker has not done anything as of yet, but I fear that may change very soon._

"So how many matches are left?" Puar asked, the small blue cat floating at Yamcha's shoulder trying to count off the finalists.

"Well already in is me, Krillin, and Goku," Yamcha listed off, then his face turned sour. "And that triclops, Tien made it too." He smiled again as he turned and looked at another member of their group, "Not to mention Luffy."

"I still have my match with your old friend Nam," Sora said to the tall man in front of him.

Bulma's eyes widened as did Launch's next to her. Both women with blue hair started sweating and Bulma said, "The semi-finalist from last year? Oh no!"

Sora scratched the back of his head, "Haha, thanks for the vote of confidence Bulma."

The young woman instantly realized that Sora was probably nervous enough as it is without her making Nam out to be a monster. She laughed nervously a few times and said, "I'm sure you can do it kid." After she said it though, she looked back towards the building that was undergoing some repairs. _Actually, I'm already surprised that you made it this far. Though, I never expected Luffy to make it to the finals either. Maybe, Sora's actually got a chance._

"Remaining fighters, attention all remaining fighters." A voice shouted over the loudspeaker and everyone lifted their heads up and listened. "Please return to the preliminary stages so that we can get on with the final matches of the preliminary round."

"Well, wish me luck guys," Sora said to the few members of their group that they were leaving behind.

"We'll be cheering you on the whole time," Nami told him, standing back up from her seat and walking forward like the rest of the fighters.

They all looked at her in confusion and Krillin started sheepishly, "Sorry Nami, but only contestants can enter the room."

Nami smirked and said, "That's fine. Are only contestants allowed to stand next to giant holes in the wall?" She asked sarcastically, pointing back towards the building where the giant hole Luffy smashed in it earlier was still there. "Uh oh," she started as she saw some other people much closer to it rushing over and blocking the view. "Looks like I wasn't the only one thinking it."

"That's too bad," Launch said, the sweet innocent woman with long dark blue hair sighing.

Bulma smirked as she got an idea and she turned to her friend next to her. "Hey Launch," the other woman turned her way and Bulma threw some pepper in her face that she got from the table.

"Bulma," Launch started in confusion. "What was that for?" She asked. Before Bulma could respond, Launch lifted up her head a little and a little more, and then her head snapped forward and she sneezed. Most of the group with the Keybearers gawked and they suddenly realized something. The same woman was standing there, only now her hair had turned golden blond, just like the woman they met the day before.

"They were the same person?!" Sora exclaimed.

"How does sneezing change someone's hair color?" Usopp asked in just as much confusion.

Launch looked between all the guys right over to the hole in the wall that they were walking towards. She reached behind her back and when her arms were back in front of her, she was holding up a submachine gun. The pirates, Sora, and Goofy all dropped their jaws as Launch started shooting up in the air and scaring everyone around her into running away. "Move it! If you don't want a bullet in your head you better get out of my way!" Launch stormed over towards the building and all the people blocking their view of the inside sprinted away in fear.

Bulma and Oolong just casually strolled behind their friend and the rest of them followed with more sheepish looks. After a few seconds though, Nami smiled and thought, _That was pretty smart of her. Using her friend's dual personalities to her advantage. Very manipulative, just like me._ Nami grinned and walked right up next to Bulma, smiling in at the girl around her age who grinned right back.

"This is so embarrassing," Krillin muttered as he followed after the rest of them. He was just glad that he and the other fighters got to go around and actually enter the building instead of standing with crazy Launch.

Smoker growled at the blond woman who thought she could do whatever she wanted, but he turned his attention back to the shirtless pirate captain who had a string around his neck that held a straw hat on it. Staring at the straw hat on that pirate's back only made him angrier, _Straw Hat, I am not going to follow you any longer. I will find Tashigi, and I will do it without teaming up with a pirate like you._

Little did the Marine know, someone was watching him not very far away. A cloaked figure leaned back against a wall across the waiting area from the main tournament building. Under the shadow of his cloak he watched as Smoker walked away, and then in the corner of his eye he noticed something and turned. Staring right over at him was a tall, muscular man with three eyes.

Tien stared across the waiting area where most people had cleared out of when Launch started firing. He looked straight at the figure in a black cloak, and he thought about the day before when he signed up for the competition. _It's the same guy alright. He was watching me yesterday._ Tien took a step towards him, then all three of his eyes widened at the sight of the man sinking down into the floor. A dark circle surrounded his feet and he vanished among a swirl of black tendrils before it all vanished, leaving no trace of the man who was there.

The triclops glared at the spot where the figure disappeared. _How did he do that? Grr, why do I have the feeling whoever that was is incredibly powerful?_ He humphed and turned back towards the building, "These preliminaries better end soon. I am already disappointed by the competition, these remaining matches will most likely _not_ pique my interest." He chuckled smugly to himself and then walked towards the doorway.

* * *

Tien stared slack-jawed at the stage in front of him. He had sweat on both sides of his face and a confused expression to match.

Yamcha wasn't far off and the young man with dark hair exclaimed, "What is he?"

"G-G-Goku, you see that right?" Krillin asked his best friend.

"I see it Krillin, but it's hard to believe right?" Goku rubbed his eyes a little but the sight of the person in front of him remained the same.

Jackie Chun might have been the most shocked of them all. As soon as his match started he raced forward and punched his opponent in the chest faster than the man was able to dodge. He had the feeling his foe was strong, so he did not want to hold back much. However, once he punched the man, his hand went straight through Smoker's chest, and the younger man with gray hair exploded out around his fist as a plume of smoke.

Captain Smoker was sweating a little too, as his opponent approached him almost faster than he could see. All he saw was a blur and he did not even have time to counter before the disguised Master Roshi slammed a fist through him. His legs remained standing on the floor, but his chest around the white toga he got from the Olympic Coliseum blew up into smoke. His face was also remaining and he ground his teeth while glaring down at the old man in front of him.

The five hundred year old man looked up a little and saw Smoker's harsh gaze, but had no idea why it was directed at him. Truthfully, Smoker had nothing against Master Roshi. The only thought on his mind at the moment was, _I need to make it to the next round. I need to face Mugiwara! If I don't stop him here, he will be the greatest threat to the Marines. A pirate is a pirate. They can call him a hero all they want. He knows it and I know it, he will never change._ Smoker lifted up both fists and punched them forward at his opponent.

Jackie pulled his arm out of Smoker and started doing backflips, landing on his hands and flipping again to his feet, then flipping to his hands, all the way back across the stage. As he backflipped, the fists that Smoker punched flew after him, and during one of the flips, a fist with a trail of smoke behind it extending fifteen feet all the way back to Smoker's torso slammed straight into Chun's stomach. The old man oofed, but then swung his other arm incredibly fast and parried Smoker's following punch.

Smoker was stunned as the man did not just block his fist, but blocked at just the right angle to send his hand off to the right, giving the old man a perfect path straight between his arms. As he tried bringing back both of his arms, Jackie raced straight up to his torso and released a flurry of punches and kicks. His form was amazing, and Smoker could barely follow his movements, but not a single time did Jackie break through his defenses. Jackie saw Smoker rising a knee up towards his chest and he sidestepped to the left, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the real attack coming: one of Smoker's fists from before that finally made it back to his main body.

Master Roshi, or Jackie Chun, hopped up in the air right over the fist and tapped the top of it with his foot, knocking the hand down so that it slammed into the floor and punched a hole in the ground. As Roshi was in the air though, he noticed the second fist coming for him, and he reached up a hand and grabbed it by the wrist. As he clenched down on the wrist though, the entire hand just dissolved into smoke. "How are you doing this?" Roshi asked, spinning around in midair towards the younger man who thought he had gotten the drop on him as he reformed his whole body from smoke.

The Marine's eyes widened as he realized the old man knew where he was the whole time. He snarled and started punching forward fast, his fists flying like Luffy's Gum Gum Gattling Gun, only a little slower as his fists didn't bounce back to him with each punch. Roshi lifted up his hands in open palms and stopped each of the blows before they reached him, catching each punch so that it lost its momentum and then releasing to grab another one. The flurry of their arms moving was astonishing to most people spectating the fight.

Tien's three eyes narrowed up in the air. _So that's Jackie Chun. He moves impeccably. Each of his movements is exactly as he wants it to be, moving gracefully while still powerfully. His form is as close as perfection as could be without being me. That other man though. His smoke power is something to be careful of. I must find a way to get around it._

"You can do it!" Sora called out.

"Go for it Smoky!" Luffy yelled up in the air, pumping a fist.

"Don't cheer for me!" Smoker shouted down, giving Master Roshi the chance he needed to close the gap and slam a fist into Smoker when he wasn't paying attention. Even as he did, Smoker's Logia powers kicked in anyway and his head burst into smoke as the fist flew through him. Smoker snarled that he was caught off guard, so he rushed all the smoke around him into one place and wrapped around his enemy who was still in the air. He dropped fast and slammed Roshi down to the ground.

"Jackie!" Goku exclaimed, looking nervous at how hard Smoker brought down his friend.

"Contestant 106 and 99, please come to Stage 3."

Sora heard the announcement and spun around, but he looked back at the stage in front of him. "No, I really want to watch this match."

"As do I," a voice said on his left and he looked to see Nam standing there. The man grinned down at him, "Why don't we both stay here, then they won't be able to start our match?" The man smiled a little at the younger boy and Sora smiled back, nodding and making an affirmative 'mm' noise.

The two of them looked back at the stage as Jackie Chun wrestled free of Smoker's smoke constraints. The Marine Captain snarled and as Roshi got up to his feet, Smoker planted both of his legs down on the ground hard. Jackie looked at his opponent and started, "You really seem to want to win this fight, but I have reasons of my own for needing to make it to the next round." The man with blue hair rose up his hands into a fighting stance, narrowing his black pupils at Smoker while his opponent just growled louder.

"RAAA!" Smoker yelled louder than Jackie was talking. He yelled until the ground around his feet broke down, and smoke shot up behind him as a huge wall. The wall stretched from one side of the ring to the other, and started curling in to surround Jackie. Jackie looked back and forth for a way to escape, but in this small ring he had no way to get out of it. All he could do was run forward right into the center of the wall curling around him. Smoker's face was still on the wall of smoke, but only for a few more seconds until he disappeared into it.

Roshi spun around, looking all over the wall of smoke that started spinning around him. On the outside of the ring, everyone shouted and yelled for who they wanted to win, even if they could no longer see Jackie or the man who created the smoke wall in the first place. Grunts and crashing noises continued to come from the stage for minutes as smoke swirled around the arena.

"What's going on in there?" Krillin asked in annoyance as he could not see anything. He leaned closer to the stage, then yelped in surprise and fell backwards as the entire side of the smoke wall he was on scattered and a blue beam came flying out of it.

"HAAA!" Jackie finished his Kamehameha Wave right where he thought his opponent was, and the wall broke apart leaving only half of the stage covered. Everyone who looked inside the smoke and saw the former winner of the tournament lowered their jaws at the sight of his body bulked up three times the size of the short man from before. His black shirt was gone, ripped off by his huge bulking muscles. He looked serious as he had a few bruises on his face now from fists that were flying out of the wall from all directions.

Smoker's upper half stuck out of the half of the smoke wall still remaining for a few seconds. He was panting heavily and his eyes were wide as he stared at the huge old man. _This is crazy. How could an old man have so much strength. This world itself is full of strong fighters… Actually, we are at the tournament where the strongest fighters in the world gather. Still, I would not be surprised if he is the strongest man in the world. Which makes this a great time to test my strength._

The wall of smoke started to disperse around Smoker and he landed on the ground across his tournament stage from Jackie. "Hey old man," Smoker started, getting Jackie's attention. "I don't know why you're in this tournament, or why it is you're hiding." He just left it at that, not wanting to say too much since he knew Master Roshi understood, even if a few of the others got confused. "But I am going to win this fight. I need to win this fight."

"Wow, I didn't know Smoker was so into this tournament," Sora mentioned in surprise upon hearing what Smoker was saying.

Usopp was nearby Sora and he narrowed his eyes at the older man. "Yeah, me neither," he said, getting suspicious of the Marine's true motives.

"106 and 99? 106 and 99 please come to Stage 3 or we will have to disqualify you both."

Sora and Nam snapped their heads to each other and they both had the same nervous, but also disappointed look on their faces. "Alright," Sora conceded, "let's go have our match." He motioned his head to the side. He turned back to Usopp for a second and said with a grin, "Save my spot, I'll be back in a minute."

"Ohh? Confident are you?" Nam questioned the child who started walking with him over towards another stage. He would not underestimate this young teenager, as it was in this very same competition three years ago that Goku defeated him, even younger than Sora is now.

Sora laughed a few times, then smiled up at the man next to him, "Not really." As he said it, Nam noticed the sweat on both sides of his face and he sweatdropped himself.

"Hey Sora, wait up," a voice said behind him. He turned around and smiled even wider seeing Goofy running after him.

"You don't want to watch the end of that match?" Sora asked his dog-like friend.

"I do, hyuck," Goofy replied, confusing Sora. He continued though, "But I would rather watch my friend."

"Haha, thanks Goofy," Sora told him, a brighter smile coming to his face upon hearing that.

He turned back around and he and Nam went over to their stage where the flustered judge gave them annoyed looks that showed he had been waiting for them for a while. Nam looked down at the boy as they each hopped up on the stage, "You have some good friends."

Sora smiled back at the guy, "I know." He walked to the opposite side of the ring and lifted up both hands in front of him. "Goku and the others have really made you out to be pretty strong, so I'm going all out from the start." A flash of white light appeared in front of Sora and in his hands appeared a golden hilt followed by a long golden shaft.

Nam nodded his head and bowed to the boy, "I will not hold back either. I hope this will be a good match."

Sora nodded, then looked down at the Keyblade hilt in his hands. _I was right, this Keyblade is stronger than the others. One hit with it knocked my last strong opponent right out of the ring. Against people I need to be careful, though, I have a feeling Nam can take it._ He lifted up his weapon and planted his feet down on the ground, getting ready for the official to start the match.

Back over at the stage with Jackie and Smoker, the fight was raging intensely. Jackie's attacks were relentless, and he started attacking more using his energy as his physical blows seemed to do nothing against this opponent. Smoker was fast though, and he dodged each one of Jackie's attacks that took longer to charge than his normal punches and kicks. "White Blow!" Smoker yelled, punching his right fist forward while focusing his mind on it. The fist flew at Jackie faster than Smoker's normal punches with a stream of smoke coming out behind it.

Right as his fist was about to collide, Jackie noticed it glisten for a second with a shiny black coating. He leaned backwards and the fist passed over his head, but it nicked him in the face and blood splashed up from a shallow cut on his chin. As he leaned back up, the Master's eyes widened to see Smoker was right behind his fist, and now had his other arm pulled back, concentrating on that fist instead of his other one. He slammed the fist forward right into Jackie's gut, but he growled angrily as the black coating never surrounded his fist.

_I still can't get Armament consistently enough,_ he thought with a pissed off expression on his face, then shot up in the air as Roshi lifted up both arms quickly and yelled, "Lightning Surprise Attack!" Smoker barely got up above the flash of golden light before it shot underneath him and scorched half of the arena.

"Darn," Roshi exclaimed as he looked up at his opponent whose legs turned into smoke just before his attack hit them. He was not very injured from just the normal punch to the stomach, though this man was much stronger than his previous competitors in the preliminaries. He also noticed that black coating on Somker's fists and knew he had to be careful of them.

"I know you can do it Jackie!" Goku called up to the old man who beat him in the finals of the last tournament.

"Go for it Mr. Chun!" Krillin exclaimed.

Luffy opened his mouth to cheer for Smoky, but then remembered the last time how he got the man distracted enough for Jackie Chun to land an attack on him, however ineffective. He knew if Smoker got distracted this time though, it would result in something much worse than last time. So he stayed quiet.

The older man began moving much faster than before as Smoker came for him with a flurry of punches and kicks. Every time, Roshi noticed the man's expression getting deeper and deeper rooted in anger. He flipped backwards once more as the gray-haired man attacked, and Smoker's fist slammed down into the floor. It was covered in that black coating again and smashed straight through the ground.

Usopp's eyes narrowed as he noticed the black coating of Haki on Smoker's hand. _What is that?_

Smoker snarled and snapped his head back up. His angry look faltered at the sight of the older man standing right in front of him. Chun spoke in a voice only loud enough for the two of them to hear, "You have incredible skill, but you are fighting in anger. You should not draw strength from your rage."

"Shut it," Smoker growled, and slammed a fist right into Jackie's face. As his fist collided though, it went through his opponent just like Jackie's were going through him. He spun around, then kept spinning as Jackie appeared all around him. The spectators gasped on the inside and outside of the building where others were cheering. It suddenly looked like there were eight Jackie Chuns around the stage, as the elderly fighter was moving so fast that Smoker could not tell which one was the real him.

_Anger? Rage? No! I only fight for Justice._ The Marine opened up both fists and slammed his palms down into the ground at his feet. At that moment, his opponent stopped moving right behind him and held out his hands forward. Master Roshi started yelling out his attack, when a wave of debris flew up in the air from Smoker's attack on the ground below him. The Marine left the martial artist's sight for only a few seconds, but just like that he was gone.

Jackie looked around, stopping his attack midway through it. He felt the presence behind him and started to turn, only to see the younger man up in the air behind him with his body completely twisted to the side. Smoker slammed down his fists into Jackie Chun's chest at point blank. While his fists pressed into the old man, the Marine roared, "WHITE BLOW!" Both of his fists shot off of his forearms, a trail of smoke following them as they pushed the old man back, and back farther until he was flying off the stage.

"Jackie!" Goku exclaimed as the man went flying over their heads.

Jackie Chun winced and looked back towards the ring as he was sent flying away from it. _Perhaps it is time for a new generation of fighters. Master Roshi, you are getting too old for this._ He closed his eyes as the fists pressing against him flew back towards the sender and he dropped out of the air down towards the stage beneath him. The old man flipped backwards in midair and landed on his feet, but unfortunately the stages in the preliminary room were not very large, and he was over on a different stage now, right in between a teenage boy with brown spiky hair, and a dark skinned man who looked shocked to see him.

Nam and Sora stared in surprise at the old muscular man who just dropped on their ring. "Excuse me sir," the Judge officiating the match began while facing Jackie. "I need to ask you to get off the stage."

_My time is done,_ Roshi looked over towards the stage he was just on. The panting man on the stage who had the power to turn himself into smoke was glaring in his direction, or more precisely, a teenager running his direction with the others. He followed the man's gaze the the skinny rubberman's back, and then looked back towards him. _Smoker, you are an incredible fighter with quite the amazing power. Do not let your anger take control of you._

Jackie Chun walked off of the stage while Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha ran up to him. They started shouting and telling him they thought he was going to win, but the old man just shook his head without responding to any of them. Everyone watching from the hole in the wall started to feel strange as they stared at the former champion. Even Smoker himself stopped panting as hard and looked over towards Jackie Chun with a confused look. The old man sighed as he looked down at Goku, "Good luck in your matches," he told the boy. He looked at the other two of his students in orange gis, "All of you have improved a lot from last tournament." The old man nodded once more at them, then said softly, "Goodbye."

Sora and Nam watched as the old fighter turned and walked back towards the door of the arena. All the fighters who lost their earlier matches, and the others who won, just watched as Jackie walked through the crowd. Krillin took a step after Jackie, "Where, do you think he's going?" The short boy asked in a shaky voice. "Isn't he going to watch the rest of the matches."

Goku stared seriously at Jackie's back while the man walked away. "I don't think he's coming back Krillin." For some reason, Goku felt like that 'Goodbye' was for good, and it saddened him.

Luffy was looking over at Jackie Chun's back while the old man left too, but he turned back to Smoker before most other people stopped watching Jackie. The pirate grinned and laughed a few times. "Shishishi, nice job Smoky."

The Marine stopped looking at Jackie Chun and his teeth ground against each other. He snapped his gaze to Luffy and the pirate immediately realized the look Smoker was giving him was different than usual. Smoker's eyes were narrowed and his fists re-clenched. "Straw Hat," he growled, walking over to the edge of his ring and stepping off. He walked straight towards Luffy who stood his ground and just looked up a little as the Marine came closer. "I said not to cheer for me," he snarled at the younger man, then pushed Luffy aside and kept walking.

"Oi Smoky, what's wrong?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side as the man walked past. Usopp turned in and saw his captain looking at Smoker's back with a frown on his face. Luffy continued, "That looked like a great match, I wish I could have fought him too-"

Smoker's snarl was getting deeper and deeper. He hated every single word coming out of the pirate's mouth. _Why does he speak like we are comrades? I have to kill him. I am a Marine, he is a pirate! RAA!_ "Quiet," the Marine growled in a deep voice. He noticed the muscular man on his right side glaring at him, and he turned a little and glared just as hard back at Usopp. _All these pirates are dangerous. Once I am done with Straw Hat, you will be next._ He bared his teeth once more, then turned and walked away, looking very pissed as he did.

Nami and Bulma noticed the Marine after they looked away from Jackie Chun's retreating form. Both women felt themselves start sweating badly. After watching the former champ get beaten, no one wanted to be in this man's way, especially with the look he had on his face right now. Smoker walked over towards the hole in the wall where the spectators were trying to watch, and they backed up out of his way. He hopped through and walked right between Nami and Bulma, then past Nico Robin who he shot a harsh glare. _And you Nico Robin, I have not forgotten what you did in Agrabah. All of you pirates. You are a menace, not heroes._ His mind was swirling with anger and his fists were clenching so hard he could feel blood coming out of his palms.

As Smoker left the arena, and continued walking away, a single figure hiding amongst the crowd stepped out and started following Smoker. He was wearing all black, but under his hood he grinned a little at the sight of the Marine's enraged expression. No one noticed him follow after the Marine, not even the Captain himself.

"What was that all about?" Oolong whispered, his face blue with fear as he hid behind Bulma's legs.

"I don't know," Nami replied just as quietly, as if the Marine who was already long past them could still hear her. _Why did we let a Marine come with us? Least of all Smoker?!_ She gulped and tried to keep herself from shaking, reminding herself that Smoker was on their side for now, though it was sometimes hard to tell.

"Umm, contestants?" A judge asked, making Sora and Nam turn back to him. "Your match has started," the fat monk reminded them.

"Oh, yeah," Sora said. He tried to forget about Jackie Chun landing on their stage and all the weirdness that followed for the moment, and to focus on his match instead. He lifted up both of his hands that were holding his golden Keyblade, Three Wishes, in them. "You ready Nam?" Sora asked with a small grin on his face, trying to stay calm despite how amazing that last match was.

"Yes," Nam replied. The dark-skinned man put his hands together and bowed his head. He had on a dark orange gi and a white turban on top of his head, with a pink sash over his left shoulder. "Let us begin," he stated, and turned his body to get into a fighting stance. Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha refocused on the tournament stage next to them. They tried to ignore the sad feeling they had that Jackie Chun was already out of the tournament, and to enjoy the next fight with everyone else. Luffy and Usopp walked over as well to stand next to Goofy, and the people who crowded back around the hole in the wall started cheering again.

One man who looked a lot like a bear who was standing on Nami's right side spoke to his friend next to him who looked like a dog-person. "Man, I never knew the preliminaries were this intense."

"I bet they're not," the dog-guy replied to his friend. "I think the contestants this year are just a lot stronger than usual."

"You got that right," Nami said under her breath with a little smirk on her face. She pumped a fist in the air while cupping her mouth with her other hand, "Go for it Sora!"

"Go Sora!"

"You can do it Nam!"

"Give it your best guys!"

Sora grinned at his opponent, and Nam smiled a little back, and the match really began. The two of them rushed forward at the same time. Immediately, Sora realized he was outclassed in speed. He was planning on meeting Nam in the middle of the stage, but the taller man rushed in much faster than he did, meeting him after Sora only took a few steps. Sora lifted up his Keyblade to block a punch that Nam was swinging down, only for the man to kick him in the left side when he moved his Keyblade. The punch was a feint that Sora didn't see coming, and he oofed loudly as he was hit in the side.

The teenage boy lifted off his feet and got knocked to his right a few yards. He hit the stage ground and skid across the floor until he was almost at the edge, then jumped straight up in the air. He pointed his entirely golden Keyblade down at his opponent and called out, "Fira!" Nam saw the large mass of flames approaching and he leapt up in the air to avoid them. Sora's eyes went wide as his opponent lifted much higher than he did with his jump. In fact, Nam lifted so high that he flew out the hole in the roof that Luffy broke earlier with his Axe attack.

Nam lifted higher and higher, then dropped back down towards Sora with his arms crossed his front of his face. "I have seen your fights Sora," he spoke in a low voice with an accent different than most of the people Sora had met on this world. "I told you I will not hold back."

Goku pointed up and talked to the others with him how he remembered Nam doing this against him back in their last fight three years ago. This time though, Nam was descending much faster than before, with almost a visible trail of air moving around him as he shot down. Goofy and Sora's pirate friends were starting to get a little worried as their friend dropped from the sky

Sora lifted back up his Keyblade as he landed on the floor, and held it above his head to block Nam's incoming attack. _I can do this._ He planted his feet down hard and held up his shiny Keyblade above him, pressing one hand against the shaft while the other clenched the hilt tight. "Cross Arm Dive!" Nam yelled as he dropped back through the roof and down towards Sora. _I can stop him!_ Sora exclaimed in his own mind, planting his feet down even harder on the floor.

Nam's Cross Arm Dive slammed into Sora's Keyblade. For a split second, it looked like the two of them were evenly matched, pushing against each other. Then, Sora's arm bent back and his Keyblade was pushed aside. Nam kept falling and he plowed straight down into Sora's chest, knocking the teenager into the ground. Four large cracks shot out around the stage from Sora's body, making half of the audience wince themselves from how much that must have hurt. Debris flew up in the air, and Nam flipped backwards to land on his feet next to Sora.

"I apologize," Nam said to the boy lying on the floor of the cracked arena. "I believed you were stronger," he said, trying not to sound taunting, while also explaining why he was so brutal.

"Wow," Krillin said with a bead of sweat on the side of his face. "Nam really packs a whallop," he said nervously.

The judge on the side ran over and looked down at the boy in the middle of the cracks. His eyes were partially open, and he moaned to himself at how much that hurt him. _I really couldn't block it. My chest feels so heavy, agh,_ Sora pushed one hand down on his side, not the one that hurt so much from trying to hold onto his golden Keyblade hilt while it was being pushed aside. His Keyblade itself was lying on the floor not far from him, but Sora didn't crawl over to grab it. "Are you sure you want to continue?" The judge asked quietly as Sora was standing back up, surprising Nam and most of the spectators watching.

"Huh?" Sora asked, looking to the fat man next to him. He was hunched over, breathing heavily, with an arm limp at his side, and dirt all over his face, but he smiled at the monk anyway. "I'm just getting warmed up," he said cockily, then turned back to Nam with the same grin. "Guess I can't wait until the finals," he said and lifted up both of his hands in front of him. His left arm felt like mush, but he ignored that and just focused on one word. _**Keyblade.**_ A few feet away from Sora, the Keyblade on the ground disappeared in a hundred shards of white light. In his hands, a yellow hilt appeared, and a long silver shaft extended out from it. He looked at the Kingdom Key and smiled, always having liked the design for this one. He held it up and called out, "Cura!" A green light shimmered from the blade and surrounded his body, and he instantly felt a lot better.

He pointed his weapon back down at Nam and continued, "You're going down."

Nam put his hands back together in front of him and closed his eyes. _I did not wish to hurt this boy, but it seems maybe I was right to treat him as an equal. I must finish him as if I were fighting Goku._ Nam's eyes snapped open and his arms moved around into a fighting stance. He started racing forward, but Sora charged in faster this time, swinging back and forth with his Keyblade.

He clashed his Keyblade into Nam's left forearm, since the darker man blocked his swipe, then he leaned forward over his weapon so that his face was close to Nam's. "I wanted to wait until the finals to use this, but you're much stronger than my other opponents were." Sora pushed off his opponent's arm and flipped backwards. Nam made to follow, but froze as Sora did not come down to the ground. The boy who was flipping backwards hesitated in midair. He held out his arms to his sides, pushing his head back and facing up towards the ceiling. While he did all this, his body surrounded in a bright white light that amazed everyone watching him. The judge stepped back and Nam stared through the light at his foe. Many of the spectators dropped their jaws and watched in awe as the light vanished to reveal Sora in a set of red clothing, holding both his Kingdom Key, _and_ the golden Three Wishes Keyblades.

The young teen dropped back to the floor and held his Keyblades out. In his right hand he held the Kingdom Key parallel to his waist, and he held his Three Wishes up with his left hand, ready to strike with it from above. "Valor!" Sora called out, and he swiped his Keyblades in front of him.

"Where did that boy get two weapons?"

"What was with that light?"

"Go for it Sora!" Nami shouted, surprising the other spectators around her who were all confused about what was going on. Bulma and her friends lost their shocked looks after a few seconds and looked at Nami nervously. They turned back to Sora, and it was Launch who first got over it and called out the teen's name, "Yeah, kick his ass Sora." The blond woman with long curly hair yelled at her friends for being so timid and soon, Bulma, Oolong, and Puar all joined in with the cheering, while Robin just chuckled from behind them.

Sora charged forward and Nam noticed his increase in speed since the boy reached him in only a few steps this time. He had to dodge the boy's Keyblades as Sora swung them faster than before. Nam dodged left and right, occasionally pushing a Keyblade aside if it came too close to him. He leaned backwards away from one of the blades, only to feel a rush of wind so fast that it knocked him back a few feet. The grown man took a deep breath to calm himself down and he jumped up in the air, doing five front flips up over Sora's head. The younger man was stronger than before, and he pressed his legs down hard, then jumped up in the air after Nam. Sora swung both of his Keyblades and slashed across Nam's crossed arms as the man was passing over him.

Nam thought he could protect himself from the blunt weapons, but the Keyblades hurt much more than they looked like they would. His guard was broken in only two slashes by Sora, and the teen continued slashing his body after that. He slashed with both blades coming from the left side, then slashed back from the right. He swung one down at him, and the other up, then crossed them across Nam's body. Sora twisted his entire body in midair, and yelled out as he finished his combo with a powerful double swing of his Keyblades. The visible slash that left the end of his Keyblades went through one side of Nam and out the other.

The muscular fighter gasped out and blood splashed from his mouth. Sora was already falling back down towards the ground having finished his combo, but Nam was falling headfirst towards the ground. The man in the turban opened his eyes a little right before he hit the ground, and he flipped himself so that he landed on his feet. His feet hit the ground and his legs bent down far, so much actually that he had to plant his right hand down to steady himself. He looked up a little to see Sora charging at him again. _Valor doesn't last long, and Nam is really strong. I need to beat him fast!_ Sora sprinted over and hopped up so that he was coming down towards Nam. The older fighter looked up, and he jumped to his left to avoid the swing. He punched back in at Sora, but the fast boy bent his right arm and blocked with his golden Keyblade. The punch was still strong enough that since Sora was not on the ground, it threw him backwards across the air.

While Sora was flying back through the air, he noticed the ground of the arena getting close to him. He ground his teeth and kicked his feet out behind him hard, and a ripple of air surrounded him. The boy nearing the edge of the arena flipped himself off of nothing, but redirected his flight to land back down on the ground. _Midair recovery, nice!_ Sora thought, and with a confident grin on his face, he charged at the spot where Nam was landing. He hopped up in the air and swung both blades hard at the man, trying to use the end of his combo move from before. Slashes flew out from his blades and tore up the arena floor all the way to Nam who crossed his arms again and was pushed to the edge of the arena.

Sora landed and ran at his opponent, trying to finish the fight here. Right before he reached however, Nam leapt up high. He leapt up as high as he did the first time, flying up to the roof of the arena and high up in the sky above it. Everyone snapped their heads up and most of them lost sight of the man. A lot of the spectators backed away from the hole in the wall so they could see high above the roof to the dot that was hesitating up in the silhouette of the sun. They had to squint while looking straight into the sun, but Sora just stared straight up through the hole and steadied his breathing. _When he comes back down, I know I can beat him this time. At my speed, I could dodge his attack, and jump back in before he has time to right himself._

The man high in the air turned his body and stared down at the arena below. "I must go back down. It is time to see if my training has paid off." Nam took a deep breath, ignoring the blood droplets on either side of his mouth and crossing his arms in front of his face again as he faced down. "CROSS ARM DIVE!" He yelled, dropping through the air faster than ever.

"I can do this," Sora said out loud, planting his feet down harder than before. The ground of his stage was already shaky because of the cracks on it, but a few of the fighters noticed the floor beneath Sora's feet start trembling as the boy pressed his feet down hard on it. "Come get some!" Sora called out competitively, slashing both of his Keyblades to the side to show he was ready. He started to lift them up, when his body covered in white light and his red clothing disappeared, along with one of his Keyblades.

The look on Sora's face after Valor Form faded showed he was not prepared for it to end so soon at all. "What happened?" Yamcha asked, looking to his side where Luffy was standing.

"Sora's got a time limit on how long he can use his Drive Form," Usopp explained from the other side of Luffy. His eyes narrowed at the nervous looking boy on the stage, and he called out to him, "Sora!" The younger boy looked over with a quick glance to see Usopp staring right at him. "Don't panic," the muscular hero in a white toga told him. "Think, and win." Usopp smiled at the kid, and Sora could see Luffy smile wide from next to him as well.

Sora snapped his head back up to look above the hole in the ceiling, where his opponent was dropping down fast towards him. _If I try to dodge now, I'm sure Nam will redirect himself before I have time to adjust. He's too fast, and too strong… but, but he can't dodge in the air!_ Sora's eyes widened as the idea popped into his head, and he lifted up his Keyblade to point it at the man dropping towards him. _I've already used most of it with Cura, and I doubt I got enough of my Magic Power back to use more than two attacks, one at most._ He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he pointed his Kingdom Key into the sky. The end of his silver Keyblade started to shimmer, and the boy holding the yellow hilt with both hands lifted up the corners of his mouth into a smile.

Everyone watched as Sora's eyes snapped open, the same moment that Nam came through the hole in the ceiling. The end of his Keyblade was shimmering, and his mouth was already open as Nam dropped farther towards him. Sora hopped backwards, trying to avoid the attack Nam was bringing down at him, all the while following the man with the Keyblade's end. The light shimmering on the end of it started sparking off, as Sora yelled out, "THUNDARA!"

Nam hit the ground and immediately bounced towards Sora. He extended his arms to the ground and pushed himself in Sora's direction, keeping up his momentum from his fall almost completely. He extended a single leg towards Sora's chest, and approached the kid like a rocket. His foot came within one foot of Sora's chest, when five bolts of lightning dropped out of the sky above him. He was fast, but the lightning was faster. The bolts crashed into the fighter and knocked him out of the air into the stage. His body was covered in black. Smoke rose up from his body as he bounced on the ground and came to a full stop. He twitched a few times, as Sora landed next to him, panting pretty hard. _That's it, my MP is out!_ Sora thought, thinking in a panic because he could see Nam moving. He started running towards his opponent as Nam lifted up his right arm, planting an open palm on the floor.

The crowd held their breaths, Sora charged at Nam, the judge leaned in, and then… Nam's arm collapsed back to the ground. The man who was pushing himself up again dropped down, falling unconscious. Sora came to a stop and kept panting while he looked at Nam's unmoving body. _He fought until the last second he was conscious,_ the boy thought in amazement while he looked at his foe. His left hand that was not holding his Keyblade clenched into a fist while his right clenched the Keyblade hilt tighter. _And this was just a tournament! I'm fighting to save all the worlds, and I haven't been trying hard enough._ Sora shook his head while he looked at Nam. _It's time for me to get serious. Fun and games are fine,_ he looked down at his Keyblade, _but I need to save Kairi and Riku. _

"Contestant 99 is unable to continue," the judge finally announced when Nam didn't move for a few seconds. "Contestant 106 moves on to the finals!"

Sora's serious train of thought was shaken by those words which made a large grin appear on his face. Cheers roared out from around the room and the hole outside, and the boy held up his fists in the air, his Kingdom Key vanishing into shards of light as he did. "Woohoo!" Sora exclaimed happily. His eyes widened and he spun to Nam, suddenly realizing something. A few monks came over and prepared to take Nam away, and Sora did not know what to do. _Jackie might have been right. What if Nam doesn't want me to heal his injuries? His opponent who he fought so hard against, pitying him. Hmm…_

"Great job Sora!" Luffy called out.

"You did it!" Goofy exclaimed.

Goku looked over to Nam, then turned back to Sora and his mouth curved up into a smile. "That was a great fight," the young boy with spiky black hair told his new friend. "I didn't know you were such a strong fighter."

"Haha, thanks," Sora replied, scratching the back of his head with a big grin on his face.

His smile faded and he looked back over at Nam with a thoughtful expression. Goku saw where the other boy was looking and the small fighter said to his new friend, "Are you going to heal him?"

"I don't know," Sora replied. He watched the monks walk away with Nam, and they weren't rushing so he knew his attack was not a life-threatening one. "Jackie said I shouldn't, and now, I don't know," he mumbled aloud while people were still calling out his name. He looked back at the spiky haired boy who specifically told him not to heal him earlier, just like Krillin and Yamcha did. _Nam seems a lot like them. He never asked me to… Ah! I'll ask him when he wakes up later. Okay Sora, but first, _ he grinned and held back up his fists, shaking them around as people cheered for him.

"A punk who uses weapons shouldn't even be in the tournament," a fighter a few feet behind Luffy muttered. It was one of the guys who got out earlier, and he was talking to two others who were also defeated. "I don't care where he gets them from, he's not a real fighter."

Both of the guys next to him muttered things in agreement, then all three shut up as the person in front of them turned around. The black haired teen wearing a straw hat looked behind him with a pissed off look. "Ehh? Sora's a much stronger fighter than you losers," he said to them, his eyes daring them to say otherwise again. The men all remembered getting knocked out earlier by this strange figure, and his crazy rubber powers already had them afraid. None of them said another word about Sora, and Luffy turned back, before smiling and calling out Sora's name again.

"With that match," a judge spoke and his voice came over the announcer. He continued, "The preliminary rounds are over. There will be a short recess, but don't go far. We will call the finalists back in a few hours to start the finals."

Sora hopped off the stage and walked with his hands behind his head. He had a big smile and a glisten in his eyes that just made people smile at him while he walked by. The room was clearing out with most people heading to the doors, but Sora walked over to the hole in the wall where his other friends were. Luffy, Usopp, Goofy, and the Turtle Hermit's students were all walking with him to the women and animals who were watching the last fights. "That was a great fight kid," Oolong told the spiky haired boy who reached him first.

"Yeah it really was," Bulma agreed, though she sounded like her mind was on something else. "I can't believe Jackie Chun lost," the blue haired teenager said while shaking her head in amazement. She turned to the strange group members who they met in an alley next to a crashed ship of some kind. "That friend of yours with the smoke powers is really amazing."

"I know I wouldn't want to come up against him first in the next round," Yamcha agreed with a small nod of his head.

"I wouldn't necessarily call him our friend," Usopp stated, surprising the people they met recently who thought their group was pretty close-nit.

Luffy would have said something right away, but he hesitated as he thought about that look Smoker gave him a few minutes ago. The pirate captain grimaced and looked out towards where the Marine walked away to. _Smoker,_ he thought, frowning deeply. "Smoky is fine," Luffy said, defending the man. "He's a good guy," Luffy thought back to Alabasta and then to the Deep Jungle. Both times, Smoker was able to overlook him being a pirate, and now they were traveling the worlds together. He smiled a little, shaking his head that he thought something was wrong at all.

* * *

A few hundred yards away, a middle-aged man with white hair was pacing back and forth in an empty area with bushes on either side. Most people were either closer to the preliminary arena, or leaving the area completely to get some food before the finals started. He heard the announcement that he had a few hours until the next matches began, and he was only angry that it would take so long. He was tired from his last fight, exhausted actually. _The old man didn't know Haki, he had no Devil Fruit power, but he was still able to damage me. Those monsters on every world have hurt me. Even Straw Hat and that kid can hurt me with those damn Keyblades… Why did that weapon choose a pirate like Mugiwara? Donald and Goofy seem to think that makes him good or something, BULLSHIT._

He continued to snarl and grind his teeth while clenching and unclenching his fists. Grinding his teeth was a bad habit of his when he was stressed, so he pulled out a cigar and fumbled with the lighter, getting even angrier that it took him a few seconds to light it up. There was something on his mind, but it was so deep down that he didn't dare think about it. Instead he rushed his mind with everything he was angry about to keep himself occupied. He could not help it though, and between thoughts, the one he was trying not to think snuck back into his mind. _"Go for it Smoky!"_ He heard the pirate cheering him on again and he grabbed the side of his head with his right hand. "Damn it," he growled to himself, shaking his head to try and stop thinking about it. He thought about when the pirate met him back in Traverse Town, how Luffy called his name and said he was happy he was traveling with them. _What is wrong with this pirate? He defeated Crocodile. He's got Conqueror's Haki! He's a threat! Then, why do I- RAA!_ He shook his head furiously with his eyes closed and slammed a fist down into the ground. _A pirate with Conqueror's Haki. _

His eyes opened back up and he stared straight ahead with bloodshot eyes and shaking hands. He was panting still from his match, and now from his conflicting thoughts as well. When he looked ahead though, his eyes opened wide at the sight of a figure standing in front of him. He looked up from the feet of the person to the black cloak, and all the way up to the hooded figure's shadowed face. Smoker got back up to his feet and glared at the man in front of him. He was about the same height as the strangely dressed man, but the figure had broader shoulders and his arms were crossed in front of his chest through his black sleeves.

"Who are you?" Smoker asked, narrowing his eyes at the figure who did not look friendly.

The person in front of Smoker did not speak for a few seconds. He faced the Marine and looked him up and down, as if deciding something. "What is it you want?" the man in the black cloak asked.

_What do I want? What the Hell?_ "Answer my question," Smoker growled at this man. He was not having a good few weeks, and this guy trying to intimidate him was not going to be tolerated. He lifted up a fist and stated in a growl, "Who are you?"

The cloaked man sighed, then uncrossed his arms from in front of his chest. He reached his right hand up and grabbed the hood over his head. The man slowly slid the hood off of his head and his little black pupils stared straight into Somker's. The Marine's cigar dropped out of his mouth and his eyes turned huge. The appearance of the man in front of him had changed drastically in the month since they last saw each other in Alabasta. Back then, the figure in front of him was still in his late teens. He recalled this person pulling him out of the water, saving his life since as a Devil Fruit eater, he could not swim. He stared at the man's green hair, six inches long, falling straight behind his head down to his neck. He had three earrings on his left ear, the hair right above his head was a little scraggly, over the tops of his ears, and messed up even more because of the hood. His jaw was chiseled and with the hood down, Smoker could see his muscular neck as well.

It was the person's face that made him drop his cigar though. For the man in front of him, he instantly recognized, yet at the same time had no who he was. The person stared back at him with a flat lip, his expression unreadable. Smoker's mouth closed again as he got over the shock of seeing this man who looked so drastically different from the last time he saw him. The Marine glared at the figure in front of him, the young man who looked so menacing standing there in his black cloak. Smoker snarled out two words, "Roronoa Zoro."

* * *

**A/N Woop! Finally, he returns! What is he doing here? Why is he talking to Smoker? The finals of the WMAT are on the way as our eight competitors get ready to crush each other in front of hundreds of people. Who will win?! Find out in the next chapter, (or next 2, haven't decided yet), of Broken Log Pose! Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review telling me what you think/ predictions/ questions. Well, 'till next time!**


	19. Chapter 19

**BLP 19:**

"Roronoa Zoro," Smoker snarled at the man in front of him. There were a hundred things he wanted to tell this man, ask him, yell at him, etcetera. However, when he thought about it for a second, only one thing mattered. "Where is Tashigi?"

Zoro's expression shifted for a second. He saw how angry the man was and was expecting some sort of outburst. However, he did not show much difference in his facial expression, only frowning a little deeper. "That woman has lost her heart." Before Smoker could shout something at him, Zoro continued loudly, "What do you want?"

"I want my Sergeant," Smoker yelled back. "Bastard," he growled, "you are working with Maleficent."

Zoro stared at the man for a few seconds, then stated, "She did mention she saw you, and that you seemed interested in the copy-woman." The green haired former pirate stared into Smoker's eyes. "I will take you to her, but first, there is something you want other than that woman."

When Smoker heard that Zoro would take him to her, his eyes doubled in size. Hearing the second part of Zoro's sentence made him hesitate however. "What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I am speaking of," the cloaked man stated. "I could see it in your eyes. Every time you look at Luffy now, you have the same look." Zoro narrowed his eyes at the Marine, "You want him dead."

Smoker glared at the person in front of him. "What is it to you?" he questioned darkly. "From the sound of things, you aren't too upset about that." Zoro did not respond. Smoker rose his voice, "You don't seem too eager to get back to him. Sounds like you're betraying him." The Marine grimaced that he dropped his cigar before, and he kind of wanted to light a new one up now which he would have if he was not running low on them already. He wanted a smoke because he actually flinched at the next look Zoro gave him.

"Me, betray him?" Zoro asked in a deep tone. The muscular man's green hair shadowed the top half of his face and he held his tongue while standing there with a snarl. He continued to speak calmly, "Smoker, I saw the fury in your eyes. You fight with hate, you want Luffy dead." Zoro looked at the man who was frowning back at him. "Let in the darkness. Someone like you will easily be able to control it, and it will make you much stronger. Do it, and defeat my _captain,_ and I will take you to your Sergeant."

A dark portal appeared behind Zoro as he finished his sentence. "Wait," Smoker called to the man who stepped backwards into the darkness. Zoro put his hood up but did look out where Smoker took a step towards him. "Is Tashigi alive?" Smoker asked, his heart pounding as the words left his lips. She was the only one left. The entire world was gone, everyone he ever knew, and this was the only person he had any knowledge of whatsoever. "Is she gone?" he whispered.

Zoro seemed to hesitate for a few seconds. Then, in the same low voice he replied, "She does not have to be."

With that, Zoro disappeared. Little wisps of darkness floated up from where the portal vanished, but once those were gone, there was no trace of the portal ever being there in the first place. As cryptic as Zoro was with that last sentence, it gave Smoker hope. _Tashigi. I will come for you. My men are gone. My Government is gone. My world is destroyed. _He turned back around and looked out towards the arena in the distance. _Everyone else is gone, but Straw Hat survived. A group of pirates are all that made it off our world. Why? WHY?! Why does Straw Hat deserve to live when my men don't?_ The Marine started walking back towards the arena and his eyes shadowed over. _He doesn't._

Smoker walked away, not noticing the black footprints that remained every time he lifted back up his feet. Those footprints faded after he left them, but not before wisps of darkness floated off of them like trails of smoke. The Marine Captain's feet covered in the darkness, then it vanished all at once as the man reached a populated area once more. _Mugiwara no Luffy,_ Smoker thought, spotting the pirate across the open area where he was talking with his crew and their friends. _You will not step foot on another world._

* * *

Inside the waiting room for the tournament, eight fighters gathered along with one more man. The man had his blond fancy hair-style gelled up, and a nice pair of black shades over his eyes. He was wearing an expensive-looking suit and kept checking his watch to see when the next round would start.

Meanwhile, Yamcha was telling a story about some training he did on his own during the last three years. The three Turtle Hermit school students had not been together for the longest time now, so they needed to catch up. Goku had spent the most time apart of the three of them, but Yamcha and Krillin had gotten some individual training on their own in as well. "…and I said, 'Hey buddy, you better fight me or hand over the jewel. Either way you're gonna lose.'" Goku and Krillin started laughing and Yamcha smirked.

Not far from the three in orange gi's, Sora and Luffy were hanging out with each other. "While you were off eating with Goku, we got a call from Jiminy," Sora told his older friend. Luffy looked back at the shorter teen who continued with a smile, "He says that Donald is working hard on the Gummi Ship and that it's almost finished. It should be ready by tomorrow."

"Hmm," Luffy hummed. "But Nami said there is only going to be one more match today. I hope it's mine," he said.

"Yeah, they're starting off the finals with one match today, then there are going to be more matches tomorrow and the day after too." The brown haired kid paused for a second and then asked, "Hey Luffy, who do you think is going to make it to the championship?"

Luffy grinned wide and pointed a thumb at himself, "I will for sure."

Sora chuckled a little and said, "Man I wish I had your confidence right now. Everyone in here is really strong." He turned and looked back at their three new friends, then looked a little to their left at the bald triclops who took down Usopp. Way behind Tien, leaning against a wall, was a black man in a brown trench coat who had an orange bandanna covering the bottom half of his face. He was wearing a brown hat with a rim all the way around it just like Luffy's, that he had pulled down far so that barely any of his skin was showing. His hands did not come out of his sleeves, and his brown coat went down below his feet so they couldn't see those either. "Hey, did you see any of that guy's fights?" Sora asked, now that he focused on the man.

The pirate captain hummed to himself, glancing over at the mystery figure for a few seconds. He replied, "Nope, I don't think so." Then he looked back where he was facing originally. Sora followed Luffy's gaze and looked over to the last person in the room. Captain Smoker was staring back in their direction with cold, dark eyes. Luffy made eye contact with the white haired Marine, and he kept himself calm.

He thought back to Loguetown when he tried to fight Smoker, only for his attacks to go right through the man. He thought to Alabasta, when he again resorted to running away from his opponent, leaving his brother Ace to fight him instead. _I need to find a way to beat Smoker. _He kept himself from sweating, though the Marine's expression was somewhat nerve-wracking.

Sora whispered to his older friend, "Hey Luffy, you sure it was a good idea to bring your enemy on this mission?"

Before Luffy had a chance to respond, someone started shouting from the opposite direction. "Hello! Participants in the back can you hear me? Please come forward," the announcer called everyone in the room to come over where he was standing.

Everyone walked over to the announcer and he made his way to a large piece of paper on the wall. On it was a bracket with eight empty positions, "Fighters will be paired off the same way as in the elimination round." He called out. "When your name is called, please come forward and draw a number from the box." The crowd gathered in a group in front of him, but Luffy noticed that Smoker walked to the opposite side of the group as him, making him frown again. "First up, Luffy."

The pirate snapped his head forward and walked over to the announcer. He reached into the box and mumbled to himself, "Just pick one. Pick one," he pulled out his slip and unfolded it, only to frown at the number he received. "Three."

"Well, that puts you here," the announcer took the piece of paper with Luffy's name and put it under the number three on the bracket. "Next up, Tien."

The three-eyed man frowned deeply as he walked forward. _Chiaotzu was supposed to be here to set up the matches. _His lower two eyes darted over to where Yamcha was glaring at him, _You are mine. I will not accept it if anyone else gets to you first._ His eyes looked to Goku now and he frowned even deeper. He thought about how the spiky haired boy told him about how he recognized the Dodon Ray when Ciaotzu used it in the preliminaries. _He said that he defeated Tao, and after seeing a few of his matches, it seems like it may be the truth. Don't worry Master Shen, I will avenge your brother, and kill Son Goku._

Tien reached into the box and pulled out a number. "Two," he stated, handing it off to the announcer and then walking back to stand with the group.

"That's good," the blond man replied, putting his name up on the board as well. "Krillin… Goku…" he continued calling out contestants names and they each went up to pull out numbers as well.

Krillin got number 6, and his best friend pulled out 7. The shorter of the two boys sighed in relief. "Fwew, for a second there I thought we were going to be fighting in the first round," Krillin told Goku.

"Make it to the second round, okay?" Goku asked, and bumped elbows with his training partner.

"Hehe, of course," Krillin replied confidently.

"And number 5 puts you here, against Krillin," the announcer said behind the two boys. Goku and Krillin turned, to see Sora staring right back at them.

Sora chuckled a little and looked at Krillin, "Looks like you won't be making it to fight Goku."

"Huh?" Krillin asked, his initial surprised look going away and being replaced by a cocky smirk. "I'll have you know I'm much stronger than you."

"Good luck Krillin, you too Sora," Goku said to the two of them.

"Ehh?" the bald fighter asked his friend. "You can't root for both of us!"

"Well I'll root for you Krillin," Goku said, then turned to Sora. "But if Sora wins too I think that would be a fun fight."

"Well he isn't going to win, so sorry," Krillin retorted, and smirked back over at Sora. He held up his thumb, then pointed it down.

Sora felt a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face and remembered Krilln's first match against Anton the Great. The giant wrestler got defeated easily by the midget and Sora could barely follow Krillin's movements in the other fights. Sora wasn't the only one with a bead of sweat rolling down his face though, as Krillin recalled that final match against Nam. Sora used fire and lightning magic, not to mention his Valor form. _I wonder if he has any other tricks up his sleeves._ Krillin and Sora thought while grinning at the other sweating boy.

"Smoker," the announcer called out, and the Marine officer walked up to the front of the room. He was still wearing his white toga from the Olympus Coliseum, and he had a lit cigar in his mouth as he walked up to the board. The Marine looked at the board where Luffy's name was, then looked down inside the box. He looked at the announcer, and glared into the blond man's sunglasses for a few seconds, enough to make the man back off.

Smoker looked back down inside the box as he put his hand in it, and he unfolded a few pieces of paper with his fingers. After his hand was in there for about five seconds, he pulled out an already unfolded slip of paper and stated, "Four," without even looking at it. He held his hand out and his hand dislodged from his arm, a trail of smoke following it over to the announcer who panicked, but still took the slip from Smoker's hand.

Most of the fighters saw what Smoker just did and glared at the man for cheating in the random draw. He only looked at one of them though, and kept glaring into the pirate's eyes as the announcer read out, "W-Well then, that puts you up against Luffy in the first round."

"You think he did that on purpose?" Krillin asked and Goku nodded from his left side.

"That guy is starting to get on my nerves," Yamcha muttered, "like someone else I know." His attention turned to Tien who was already grinning smugly.

_This is perfect,_ the triclops thought to himself. _There are only two spots left, one of them will be fighting me. And he is one of those two,_ his attention turned to Yamcha as the tall turtle hermit's apprentice's name was called. His cocky grin only widened as Yamcha was given number 1, putting the two of them up against each other in the very first round. "Alright, that puts you against Tien in match number one," the announcer stated, while the two muscular fighters were already looking at each other with cocky grins.

"It's a shame you're not going to make it past the first match," Yamcha chided at his opponent as he walked past him.

"Tell yourself whatever it takes to get you into the ring. But then you're mine," he said, and his grin looked unnerving to Sora who was watching them. However, Yamcha did not flinch and just kept grinning back at this guy he hated.

"And since there is only one spot left," the announcer continued. "That means Gurgle, you will be number eight." He put Gurgle's name down and the rest of the fighters looked over at the figure in the trench coat with strange looks.

"What a silly name," Krillin said.

"How did they know he was number 8?" Goku asked confusedly. "He never picked his number."

Yamcha and Krillin each looked in at their clueless young friend. "Well Goku, there was only one spot left, and one name left, so even without picking the number they already knew what it would be." Krillin tried explaining.

Goku tilted his head to the side, not understanding the concept at all. "Alright, so the matches will go in this order," the man wearing sunglasses called out. "Match one will have Tien fighting Yamcha. The second match will be Luffy versus Smoker. The third match will be Sora versus Krillin. And the fourth and final match, Goku vs Gurgle."

"Grrr," a voice grumbled. "Gruh grruunn, gurrgg," the figure in the trench cloak walked up to the announcer again and looked down at him. He was over a foot taller than the shorter man and kept making gargled sounds at him. The man faced the bracket and lifted up his right sleeve, pointing directly at the name on number 5's position.

"Uh no, you won't be facing Sora," the announcer stated as he looked at the name the man's sleeve was pointing at. The figure's gurgling noises started getting louder and the announcer stepped back, "But, if you win your first match against Goku, and Sora wins his, you two will be facing each other in the second match."

"GURG- gurgle? Grr grunn burr gurglll," the figure turned around and started walking away again. They could not see his feet so it looked like the bottom of his coat just slid across the floor to make him move.

"What a creep," Krillin said, his body shivering.

Sora followed the figure with his eyes as he walked away. _Why did he want to fight me? Who is that guy?_

* * *

"Tomorrow huh?" Bulma asked her new orange-haired friend after Nami explained what Jiminy Cricket told them over the phone. "With two of your friends in the finals, I really hope you guys don't decide to pull out."

"And miss out on all that reward money?" Nami asked sarcastically. "As if."

"But Nami," Goofy started from behind the woman. "We're on a mission remember?"

The teenage girl turned with a sweet smile and waved her hand at him a few times. "It's fine, it's fine. The tournament won't last more than a few more days."

"Gawrsh, I don't know," the knight said while scratching his head. "Donald will be awfully sore."

Robin had an idea and spoke quietly just to the dog, "We have yet to find this world's Keyhole. I am sure Donald-san will allow us to stay in order to find it."

"Oh, that's right," Goofy agreed. He glanced at Bulma who did not hear Robin and then whispered back to the older woman, "But we haven't seen many Heartless around here anyway."

This time, the archaeologist did not have anything to say and was surprised the dog picked up on that. _It does not seem like it is necessary to stay on this world any longer than we already have. I doubt the boys will want to leave though._

"Hello everyone!" a voice called out and everyone near the large arena stage for the WMAT finals looked at the arena. A man was stepping out in a professional suit and a pair of sunglasses. "My name is Rick and I will be the announcer and judge for these upcoming matches of the World Martial Arts Tournament." Cheers rang out around the arena and the group of friends traveling with Luffy and Sora, along with their new friends from the Turtle Hermit school, all cheered as well.

They had great spots ring-side for their entire group. Oolong and Puar had transformed into large monsters for a minute in order to get them spots, since Launch was back to her sweet, blue-haired self instead of the gunslinging maniac who got them good spots last time. The pig and flying cat were cheering out their friends' names, while Bulma and Launch did the same. Nami, Robin, Usopp, and Goofy all cheered along, calling out Sora and Luffy's names.

Rick held a microphone up to his mouth and pumped another fist in the air. "This tournament has already started out with some amazing matches in the preliminary rounds, which I'm sure a few of you were able to see considering one of the walls was completely broken down!" He was hyping up the crowd really well and continued with calling out the matches. "Now, time to commence our first fight of the finals. For our first match, Tien Shinhan of the Crane School of Martial Arts will be going up against Yamcha from the Turtle School. Master Shen and Master Roshi are both renowned martial arts masters, so I am sure this is going to be an incredible fight!"

Cheering erupted around the crowd, and a gong rang out signaling the fighters to come to the stage. Tien stood up from a chair in the dark waiting room. His fists clenched at his sides, he walked out of the room and out to the area where the rest of the fighters were gathered. Yamcha was standing with his four friends, and they all wished him luck as he glared over at Tien. "Thanks, but I won't need it," Yamcha told them, then walked over towards Tien and walked through the hole in the wall out to the stage together.

The crowd erupted again at the sight of the two fighters. The stage on three sides was covered in spectators, with the announcer standing directly in front of Bulma and Nami's friends. "So that's Yamcha's opponent? Sure looks strong," Nami stated as she stared at the bald, muscular man who walked out without a shirt on, showing off his pecs, biceps, and every other part of him that was covered in muscles. Unlike Yamcha's orange gi, Tien had on green wristbands, blue pants, and an orange belt. _He's the guy who was with the Crane Hermit. I knew he was big, but under that green cloak he's huge!_

"Don't worry, I'm sure Yamcha can take that freak on," Oolong bragged.

"Yeah, Yamcha's the best," Puar agreed about her best friend and long time companion.

"Go for it Yamcha!" Bulma shouted to her boyfriend.

Nami noticed someone in the group wasn't cheering and she looked at Usopp who was staring straight at Tien. "What is it Usopp?" she asked her long-nosed friend.

The tan-skinned guy with large muscles wearing a white toga looked at Nami with a serious expression. "Tien was the one who beat me in the preliminaries." The others all stopped and looked at Usopp for a minute. "I tried my hardest, but I could barely touch him. And what's worse," Usopp shifted his attention back to the stage, "I think he was holding back. A lot."

"No way," Nami whispered, staring at the man who the first time she saw him after their world vanished, he was fighting off a massive three-headed dog with his bare hands. _He can fight Cerberus with his fists, but thinks this guy is too much?!_ Nami looked back at the stage and was starting to get very worried.

"But, look at Yamcha," Puar started again, now that everyone seemed nervous. "He's so confident!"

Yamcha faced off against Tien and he got right into a fighting stance. "I'll start off real slow Tien, you just try to keep up with me." He held his right hand out with his fingers curled and his other arm pulled in at his side, elbow tucked in with his fist pointed out.

Tien got into a similar stance with his left hand curled up in front of his face and his right curled in at his side into a fist. "Hmm hmhmhm," Tien laughed without opening his mouth, the sound just coming from his throat. _We'll see about that._ _**Ch Ch Cr-ck cr-ck.**_ Tien cracked the curled fingers in front of his face a few times and just smirked over at a serious-looking Yamcha.

Behind the wall on the back of the stage, Luffy, Sora, Goku, and Krillin were all leaning over the top to look down at the two fighters. A drumroll started by some of the monks and got louder and louder while the drum beat sped up. Luffy's mouth curled into a huge smile as this was getting really exciting to watch. Over in the group of their friends, everyone was cheering loudly and an old man walked up into their group.

Oolong turned around a little, "There you are Roshi," he said, making a few of the others look back. "You almost missed Yamcha's fight."

Master Roshi nodded as he stared ahead at the stage. "There was just something I needed to do first," he stated. The old man thought about how he had taken off his Jackie Chun wig for good, finally retiring. It felt like saying goodbye to an old friend, but there was no time to be sad. He looked ahead and stated, "Now it is time to see how much my students have improved."

A monk slammed a stick into the gong and instantly Yamcha was gone. Nami's eyes widened as the fighter left the ground so fast it was impossible to see. She saw his knee collide with Tien's forearm as the bald young man blocked, but then Tien swiped with his other arm too fast for her to see either. Yamcha somehow pulled himself back in midair to avoid the punch, then had to duck and weave quickly as Tien struck countless times with both arms. The Crane Hermit's student stuck out two fingers and jabbed over and over at his black haired opponent, but Yamcha was avoiding every hit. Yamcha started blocking, and he found his moment and punched a fist forward, changing the momentum so that he started getting attacks of his own in, though Tien was dodging and blocking his as well.

"Those two are amazing," Sora whispered as he watched the fight going on. _I thought the guys on my island were strong. Tidus, Wakka, even Selphie. Who knew the people from other worlds could be so amazing? Riku… I bet the next time we meet I'll be a lot stronger too. Just you wait._ Sora's fists clenched and he continued to smile as he looked down at the match.

Nico Robin found something very interesting as she watched Yamcha jump fifty feet up in the air. Although this fight was quite incredible, she was observing other things closely as well. The first thing she noticed was that Smoker was behind the wall, staring at Luffy's back instead of the current match going on. She had to create another eye with her Devil Fruit power in order to see back there, and she was also staring at another competitor who looked suspicious to her. The most interesting thing she noticed however, was Sora. As she looked across the arena to the boy leaning over the wall with the other amazing fighters, his head was turning a little bit and his eyes were darting around.

_I myself can not see the majority of the attacks these two men are making, but Sora seems to be following their movements. Peculiar, I noticed he was much stronger in Agrabah, and I thought something must have happened between the world's collapse and then. However, since then, he has become even stronger._ Robin was trying to think of reasons this could have happened, but she became distracted after Yamcha got a great combo in on Tien. The black haired man punched Tien ten times in the chest followed up by a powerful kick that pushed into Tien's stomach and actually made the three-eyed man take a few steps back.

"Ugh," Tien grunted loudly. He growled and yelled at Yamcha, "RAA!" He punched a fist forward but Yamcha moved to the side and grabbed it with both hands. The fist was never meant to collide however, and a knee slammed into Yamcha's unsuspecting face while the young man was holding Tien's arm. Yamcha flew back and hit the ground, then gasped as Tien flew down with a fist to slam into his face. He started barrel-rolling away while Tien kept punching the floor where he just was, then kicked his legs up and lifted high off the ground to avoid one of Tien's roundhouse kicks.

"And an amazing display by Yamcha. Showing he can really _roll_ with the punches," Rick shouted into the microphone, making people cheer again as Yamcha landed back on his feet in a fighting stance. As he finished shouting, Tien spun all the way around and kicked straight out, slamming into Yamcha's chest and making the man flip backwards three times before regaining his composure, though he was down on one knee with his hand planted on the ground for balance. Tien jumped over to where Yamcha was, and Yamcha jumped up high in the air to avoid his punch. Tien's hand opened up from the punch and he planted his palm on the ground, then pushed himself up so hard with that had that he was sent flying up after Yamcha.

The two of them collided in midair and started punching and kicking even faster than before. They became a blur with a flurry of punches and kicks that Sora was no longer able to keep up with. The spiky haired boy did see Yamcha put his hands together and manage a double fisted swing that knocked Tien out of the air. It looked like the triclops was going to crash down hard, but instead he landed on his feet and pressed a fist into the ground to steady himself. "Wow," Sora whispered, "that looked like it really hurt, but he's not even phased."

Yamcha landed on the ground across from his opponent and it looked like he needed to pull out all the stops. "That's it, times up!" He shouted at his opponent. "Wolf Fang, Blowing Wind Technique!"

"HA! Sounds like fun!" Tien yelled back. The two of them got back into stances. Yamcha's looked different than before, his hands up near the left side of his head, both curled in at Tien. Tien had one arm curved up above his head almost like the curve of a crane's neck, and his other arm held out in front of him also with curled fingers not fully pulled into his fist.

Yamcha slammed his fists forward, then brought them to his side. He took a step towards Tien, then another, swinging his arms back out in front of him again with his fists pointed out. His steps started to pick up, and he sprinted across the arena while Tien sprinted towards him. His feet moved in a blur and he reached Tien still on Tien's half of the arena. The two of them punched and kicked, yelling at each other the entire time. "Raa! HAA!" None of their blocks lasted over a second anymore, and they just kept hitting the other person faster and faster.

Luffy blinked a few times as he couldn't tell whether Yamcha just got in three hits, or if Tien blocked a few of them and hit the man back himself. Yamcha slammed a fist forward incredibly hard, but Tien lifted a hand up and caught the fist. He started lowering the fist down while Yamcha sweat badly, and the man in the orange gi almost did not see Tien's other fist flying forward. He moved out of the way of the fist, though it still sliced off a few of his hairs. As he dodged, he started doing backflips over and over so fast that it was impossible for many people to see.

When he landed at Tien's side, he snapped a hand forward and clamped it down on Tien's wrist as hard as a wolf's jaw. Tien leaned back but couldn't pull his arm free as Yamcha grabbed up on his arm with his other hand, then a little higher, then higher, and higher until he was at Tien's shoulder. He finished with one more claw swipe up towards the bald man's face that Tien almost did not lean away from in time. As his hand went past, Tien yelled in anger and slammed his fist forward with two fingers pointed out of it. Everything froze for a second, and two gashes of equal length formed on the left side of Yamcha's face and the right side of Tien's.

Their hesitation only lasted a second, before Yamcha lifted up, looking like he was bringing up his right knee. Luffy thought the bald man would block it, but his eyes widened as Yamcha moved his left arm forward. It turned out the knee was a fake, and then his mouth lowered a little as that punch was actually a fake too and Yamcha punched with his right arm. Tien saw the fakes and the real attack though and he blocked before swinging back his own combos. The two of them battled fiercely. It was unlike any fight Luffy had ever seen. Their power was not the most amazing thing about them, but their skill. Each one of their attacks was made with the intention of making their opponent make a move to capitalize on.

His eyes focused on Yamcha for a few moments, then he looked back to Tien. _The two of them are amazing fighters. _His mouth started curling back up and he ignored the bead of sweat rolling down his face. "I can't wait to fight one of them next round," he stated excitedly. After he said it though, he sweat a little more and he turned his head. Staring straight at him was Smoker, and he frowned deeply. "Why aren't you watching the fight, Smoker?"

Sora turned to Luffy and started to feel a little nervous. _That's the first time Luffy's called Smoker, 'Smoker,' instead of 'Smokey' for a while. _He looked back at the Marine whose eyes were unwavering, glaring straight into Luffy's face. Luffy was noticing something about Smoker different from the last times they had met. Back then, Smoker was trying to capture him. The look in his eyes back then was of a good man hunting pirates, dishing out justice, protecting civilians, serving the Government. At the moment, he barely recognized Smoker.

Smoker snarled, grinding his teeth together as he glared at the pirate. He grunted, not giving the younger man a response. Luffy shrugged and looked back at the stage, going to enjoy the fight going on instead of focusing on Smoker the entire time. _The Conquering King. How is it a fool like you could have it?_ Smoker's eyes darkened as his fists clenched harder. _Monkey D. Luffy. There is no prison to bring you to. The Government I stand for is down to one person, me. I am all that remain! It is up to ME! _His hands started shaking more, and then in front of him, five Shadows appeared.

Most people were focusing on the match between Tien and Yamcha which was so intense that the two of them became invisible for a few seconds, only for them to suddenly start spinning out away from each other and each slide across the ground. Luffy and Sora became distracted along with the other two on the wall with them though.

"Wh-What are those things?" Krillin exclaimed as he looked over his shoulder and saw five black creatures on four legs standing in front of Smoker. They had little black antennae and beady white eyes.

Smoker clenched his fists and started to lift them, but the creatures in front of him did not attack. As he started to think about what that could mean, he watched one of the creatures explode into dust and Sora landed right on top of it with a Keyblade already drawn. The boy held his Kingdom Key in his hands and looked up at a surprised Smoker, "You gonna help out or just stand there?" He asked, pulling his Keyblade up to his right and blocking a swing from a Heartless. As Sora parried the creature and they both fell backwards a little, he shot back at three times his normal speed and rushed past the Shadow with his Keyblade crossing out. He spun around after slashing it and hit it two more times, before slamming down on top of its head and sending it flying backwards to explode in a circle of darkness.

Luffy was going to drop down to help Sora out, but he watched as Sora took down the third Shadow without one of them getting a single hit on him yet. "Huh, I thought the Heartless were getting stronger," he muttered to himself. _Maybe Sora's just getting stronger faster._ He thought, but watched as Sora took down another Shadow using only one combo and he became confused. _No, they were definitely stronger in Agrabah. What's up with that?_

Smoker noticed how weak these Heartless were as well, and he glanced down at his fists. "What the Hell?" he muttered, putting two and two together. He snapped his head to the left and saw a swirl of darkness. It looked exactly the same as when Zoro vanished earlier that day and his portal swirled up into the air before disappearing. _Was he watching me? Did he create these, or, did I do it myself?_ His fists clenched again, but he heard a voice in front of him and looked back up.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sora asked the older man. "I don't know why they attacked you," he continued, "normally they would come after me or Luffy because we have the Keyblades."

"Whatever," Smoker muttered to the kid.

Sora watched as the man started walking off and he mumbled under his breath, "You could at least say thanks."

"Hey Sora," Luffy called down to his friend. "Come look at this, Yamcha's got him on the ropes."

Sora ran over and jumped up to the wall, letting his Keyblade disappear again. Krillin was going to ask what just happened, but the midget was too excited by Yamcha's amazing last Wolf Fang Fist combo that had Tien on his knees, grabbing his stomach in pain. Yamcha stood next to him, looking down with a cocky grin. Tien was grunting and groaning on his knees, and Yamcha frowned angrily, saying, "What was that? Sorry, I don't understand you. I don't speak pain."

It sounded like a great line, and the crowd would have went nuts, if Tien didn't lift up his head and start cackling. "Hahahaha! What you lack in skill, you more than make up for in amusement." Tien got up to his feet and put his hands at his sides, "Though I do think your one-liners are a bit over the top, don't you?"

"You want over the top? I'll give you over the top," Yamcha yelled at him, then jumped up high so that they could barely see him anymore. They looked straight into the sun where Yamcha disappeared in front of, then started coming back down with his foot extended out. It was the same combo he just did which worked out great, so he was trying it again. As Yamcha was falling though, Tien held his right arm in at his side, clapped his stomach a few times, then grabbed his right bicep and started yelling. His body covered in sweat and his skin tinted red.

Luffy leaned in over the wall as the man's skin turned the same color his did when he goes Second Gear. Yamcha came down and slammed a dozen kicks into Tien's chest, then finished with a crazy-powerful one right into the side of Tien's head. Tien didn't even flinch. Yamcha flipped backwards and landed, panting, while Tien just smirked at him and stood back up fully. A bunch of people, including Yamcha, gasped. Tien looked completely unharmed and said, "Is that it? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the massage. But I thought you could fight."

"Im-Impossible," Yamcha stuttered, leaning his head back in shock.

"No," Tien replied, narrowing his eyes at his opponent. "Nothing is impossible." He charged forward and Yamcha started meeting him blow for blow again, but Yamcha was nervous now, and Tien's attacks were moving faster than ever. An elbow came out of nowhere and slammed into Yamcha's right cheek, indenting his entire face in. He followed up with six punches back and forth in Yamcha's face, followed by an arm to the body that flipped Yamcha over it. The man in the orange gi managed to land on his feet, only to get slammed in the stomach by Tien's leg.

Yamcha rolled away and stopped on his knees, holding his hands into his stomach and clenching it in agonizing pain. "Nn ugh, nn," Yamcha groaned and gasped out as he sat there.

"For someone who doesn't speak pain," Tien started from only a few feet away. "You sound very fluent."

Yamcha slowly lifted up his head and with a hateful look rasped out, "You have three eyes, now use them and read my lips."

Tien would have laughed normally, but at this point he was getting tired of the fight. _I wanted to crush you, embarrass you. But now,_ his eyes darted over to the wall where Goku was watching them. _Goku killed Tao, and I will destroy him in the finals. Any one of the Turtle Hermit students would be fun to crush however,_ he looked back at Yamcha and his grin reappeared. Yamcha was talking to him like they were equals. "I'm no quitter," Yamcha said through a pained expression. "I've come too far, trained too hard to lose this match." He jumped up and roared, "This one's for Usopp!"

Before he even started his punch, Tien stepped forward and slammed a fist so hard into Yamcha's solar plexus they could see his fist on Yamcha's back. Tien watched him start lifting up, but before he could get thrown, he continued by lifting up his foot so fast that he knocked Yamcha's head straight back and made the fighter go spinning away.

Usopp watched from the crowd as the man who remembered Tien crushing him in the preliminaries tried to avenge him and failed. He ground his teeth and furrowed his brow in anger as he watched his friend go flying. Tien started taunting him again and Usopp's fists clenched at his sides. "Damn, it," he growled, wishing this wasn't a tournament so that he could go up there and stop Tien.

"Yamcha no," Bulma shouted.

"Yamcha!" Puar screamed, putting her little blue hands in front of her eyes, but leaving enough space for the cat to watch through.

Launch had sneezed a little earlier and the blonde woman yelled at the arena, "Get up Yamcha!"

Roshi shook his head, "He has improved a great deal, but it seems Shen's pupil is the stronger of the two."

"What? That's not true," Puar shouted at the old man. "Yamcha will win, you'll see."

"None of the turtle's students will survive this tournament," a voice said behind the group and they spun to see Master Shen and Chiaotzu standing behind them. Chiaotzu still looked pretty beat up from his fight against Luffy, but everyone was focusing on the old man who just spoke. Shen no longer had the smug expression from before when he was making fun of Roshi and his students. He looked deadly serious now as he spoke, "For what your pupil has done, I will never forgive you you damn turtle."

"Don't get so upset just because your student lost," Roshi scolded the other man.

"Oh, that's not why your boys are going to die here," Shen replied while narrowing his eyes behind his sunglasses. "I have recently learned that your pupil Goku murdered my brother, Tao."

The others gasped and Roshi's eyes went wide. The old men stared at each other through their sunglasses and Roshi started to sweat. _Goku, you do not know what you have done._ "Crane, we both know the type of man Tao was. If Goku killed him then it was surely out of self-defense."

"I do not doubt it," Shen replied, "but that does not lessen the severity of what he has done. Your student has killed my brother, and for that, all of your students will pay."

Simultaneously, on stage, Yamcha was pulling his arms down to the side, attempting one final attack. "Kame, Hame," Yamcha continued, and Roshi spun around, panicking that Yamcha was going to try the Kamehameha Wave. "HAAA!" Yamcha yelled, pushing his hands forward. Nami, Usopp, and Robin lowered their bottom jaws at the sight of a huge ball of blue light appearing in front of Yamcha's hands and flying towards his opponent. Tien clasped his hands in front of him with his index fingers pointed up, and he yelled right back at Yamcha.

Everyone watching stared in absolute awe as the end of the blue beam was about to collide with Tien, only to stop inches away from the man. Then, Tien roared and the Kamehameha was redirected back at Yamcha. Yamcha panicked and jumped up high in the air, the beam narrowly going beneath him. Tien jumped up after Yamcha, but meanwhile, the beam that Tien redirected exploded back behind the crowd. An enormous explosion occurred and people went flying, everyone screaming as the ball of fire got larger.

Sora and Luffy dropped their jaws at the sight of the massive explosion. It was even bigger than the one Chiaotzu tried to get Luffy with earlier, and Tien redirected it right into the middle of a crowd. While the screams echoed out, Yamcha looked down in shock, sweat all over his face. "Okay, how did he do that? Roshi's been holding out on me," the man was reaching the top of his arc and slowing down up in the air.

"Yamcha!" Goku shouted, and everyone watching the explosion looked to Goku. "Watch out!"

They all seemed to have forgotten it was a fight except for Goku. Yamcha spun around as a figure appeared behind him, and while he was turning, Tien started to yell. "HaaaaAAAA!" Tien slammed his leg so hard into Yamcha's stomach that his upper and lower half seemed to bend over the leg. Yamcha's eyes popped wide at the feeling of the intense pain that made his mind go blank.

"Yamcha!" Usopp yelled up at the man.

"YAMCHA!" Yamcha's older friends shouted.

"Ooohhhhh ugghh," Yamcha fell out of the air and slammed down hard into the tournament arena. He bounced off the ground a few feet and his eyes were rolling back into his head. He dropped back to the floor and his head tilted to the side, only quiet moans coming from his still-open mouth.

"He's knocked out," Luffy muttered. He was pissed that the guy he liked more lost, and he looked back up at Tien with a frown. The bald man took advantage of Yamcha watching the explosion and caught him off guard, and he didn't like it.

"Mm mmm," Krillin whimpered as he looked at Yamcha's unconscious, twitching body.

Goku hopped up on the wall and yelled up, "Hey, no fair!"

Tien was dropping out of the air though, in surprise to everyone watching. Even Smoker had come over after seeing that big explosion and he was watching the arena now. He saw Tien dropping and his eyes darted down to the man he was dropping towards. Tien pulled his right leg up, bent at the knee, and then at full speed he slammed his knee down into one of Yamcha's sprawled out legs. The upper half of Yamcha's left leg stayed in place, while his bone shattered and his leg from the knee down bent upwards and then in a direction no leg should ever bend.

"Ah!" Goku, Sora, and Krillin gasped.

"Nnn," Bulma whimpered, putting her hands over her eyes.

"Yamcha," Roshi whispered as he looked out at his pupil. He turned his head to Shen who started laughing uncontrollably from behind them. "Shen, how low you have stooped."

"I warned you Roshi," the Crane Hermit said, a huge smile on his face. "Next time, a broken leg will be the least of your fighters' worries. Hahahahaha!"

"Why do the psychos always come out on my shift?" Rick the announcer asked with his mouth away from the microphone. He got up on the stage and walked over to the man's body while Goku sprinted over and started shaking his friend. Rick spoke softly while Goku called out his friend's name, "Yamcha, hey you alright?" The announcer shook him a few times, "Hey, wake up, come on."

"Hey," Tien snapped at the blond man, making Rick turn to him. Tien was grinning with his hands on his hips and he said, "It doesn't take a genius to see that he's knocked out."

Rick turned to the crowd and pulled the mike to his mouth, "By way of knock out, Yamcha is unconscious and is unable to complete the fight. Therefore match one is over, the victor is Tien." He shouted and pointed his hand at the winner of the bout. "We need a doctor over here now," Rick continued then he put the microphone down and looked over at the monks, "call the hospital and get an ambulance."

Tien smirked and turned around, only to come face to face with a slightly shorter man. The figure was skinny, with a red shirt open down the middle. Luffy stood on stage with his messy black hair shadowing his face. When he snapped his gaze up, Tien was surprised to see Luffy snarling at him with a ferocious look on his face. "You bastard," Luffy snarled at him.

The crowd was getting ready to disperse and go talk about the match, but they noticed this figure standing in front of Tien with a look that scared the crap out of the rest of them. Sora ran right past Luffy and over to Yamcha, pulling out his Keyblade as he did. Rick got afraid for a second as Sora pulled out a weapon, but Sora held it over his friend and used his strongest Cure magic. Despite a few cuts and bruises going away, Yamcha's eyes stayed rolled in the back of his head and his leg was still broken. Sora exhausted his MP from just one Cura though, and without any Magic Power left he couldn't help the man in any other way.

"What do you want?" Tien scoffed at the figure in front of him. "You will find that your luck against Chiaotzu is about to run out." The two men glared at each other, sparks flying from the intensity in the ring right now.

"What is that man doing?" Shen asked, taking a step forward angrily. "Doesn't he know he will be disqualified if-"

Usopp reached behind his back and put his hand on the hilt of a broadsword he had resting there. He heard Shen's words and the Crane Hermit stopped as the muscular man in front of him grabbed his blade. Usopp turned his head sideways and glared at the old man behind him. At the same time, Nami reached down and grabbed three pieces of the Perfect Clima-Tact that Usopp made for her during his three years away from them. The girl connected the pieces and turned around as well, while Goofy looked back and forth between Luffy and his fellow pirates. "W-Wait," the dog-guy started. "We aren't supposed to meddle-"

"If Luffy starts a fight, we have to help him," Usopp stated, while narrowing his eyes at the two dressed in green from the Crane school. "Besides, that Tien guy just crushed Yamcha's leg."

"But-" Goofy continued.

Nami held her blue staff in a fighting pose, though she was sweating at the look the Crane Hermit was giving her right now. Back on the stage, Sora turned to Luffy with a nervous expression.

"Yamcha! This wasn't how it was supposed to happen!" Puar cried as she started flying towards her friend. Puar flew over and transformed into a flying carpet and said she would take Yamcha to the hospital. Krillin and Goku ran over to brace Yamcha's leg and they got him on. The blue cat flew away with Bulma chasing right after her, while Oolong and Launch stayed with Roshi and stared nervously at the confrontations going on both on and off the stage.

"Luffy," Sora began to the pirate whose fists were clenching harder and harder. The pirate didn't turn to him, but Sora kept talking, "We didn't come here to get in real fights. This is just a tournament."

"He took it too far," Luffy stated.

"What? You want to test yourself against a real fighter now that the trash is off the stage?" Tien asked the younger man, and got just the right reaction out of him.

Luffy made his move, Tien made to get into a stance, and Goku appeared in between both of them. Goku reached up and grabbed Luffy's wrist, while at the same time holding out his other open hand and pushing it against Tien's forearm. "Stop," the short boy with spiky black hair said. Krillin was getting in a fighting stance himself, Sora reformed his Keyblade in his hand, Shen and Chiaotzu both stepped forward, while all three other pirates made to attack. Goku's voice had all of them halting in place though, as he had vanished and appeared right between Luffy and Tien. "Hold on Luffy, if you fight him now you'll be disqualified."

The pirate looked down at the spiky haired boy. Yamcha was one of Goku's closest friends, yet the boy was showing more restraint than him at the moment. Goku let go of Luffy's hand and turned to Tien who was glaring down at him, "This isn't over," Goku growled at the man. "You didn't have to break Yamcha's leg. You did it to be mean."

Tien stood back up fully and crossed his arms. He glared down at Goku, "By the end of this, I will have humiliated you in front of everyone here. Then, you will face a fate much worse than he did." Tien's three eyes glared into Goku's two. "For the murder of Tao, I will have my revenge."

"I keep telling you, it was in self-defense," Goku stated, while turning and glaring right back at Tien. "You may have won the first match, but you won't win the tournament. I'm going to beat you, for Yamcha." The two of them glared at each other for a few more seconds, until Tien scoffed, turned around, and walked away.

Luffy's fists shook. He wanted so much to attack the three-eyed man right then and there. He took a step, ignoring Goku's warning a moment ago. He didn't care if Goku was not going to attack, if the boy could wait until his match to attack. Goku looked up at Luffy and watched the pirate take another step, then freeze as a figure stepped up between Luffy and Tien's walking away form. Sora stood between the rubberman and the fighter he disliked just as much as the rest of them. "Luffy, stop."

"You saw what he did," Luffy growled as he looked over Sora's shoulders. "I want to-"

"Luffy!" Sora snapped at the pirate. Luffy looked down at the spiky haired boy's face and Sora was shaking his head. "We need to take what Donald and Goofy say seriously." He walked closer to the pirate and spoke in a quieter tone, "I don't want to cause this place any trouble. We should not even be here. But you crashed us here, and now we're stuck." Sora shook his head and continued whispering as he got close to his pirate friend, "We can't meddle Luffy. Fighting in a tournament is fine, but the only ones we should be fighting for real, are the Heartless."

Goku looked at the two people in front of him with a confused look while Krillin started sweating all over, getting very confused and scared by their weird conversation. _What's a Heartless?_ Krillin thought, then dropped his jaw immediately as all around the four of them on the stage, black spheres erupted out of nowhere.

Rick's eyes popped open wide and everyone in the audience started screaming. "Please people! Stay calm and evacuate the arena in an orderly fashion!" Rick shouted into the microphone, while backing away himself with a sweaty face.

Usopp and Nami spun away from Crane and Chiaotzu and back to the stage. They heard their new friends around them freaking out, and the others panicking and running away. The two pirates watched as Goofy pulled out his shield and charged at the stage. The two of them looked at each other, then sprinted after them. Roshi watched the strange people running towards the stage and none of them had the confused looks that the rest of them had. Above the stage floated four large spheres of darkness, with dark purple lines through them and beady white eyes on the front of their bodies. They had black tails swirling out the bottoms of their bodies, and they started zipping around the air randomly before swooping down and slamming into the fighters.

The Darkballs were strong, but they attacked at the wrong time. Goku saw a smirking ball of evil darkness swooping down at him, and the boys got over his surprise to instead jump over the attack and slam a fist down on top of the monster. Tien stopped walking away and he looked back at the stage. He saw a Heartless coming his way and he simply sidestepped the creature. Another one attacked him though and he punched it, only to be surprised as the creature spun backwards, then flew right back at him. "What are these things?" the three-eyed man growled.

Sora dodge-rolled away from one as it swooped down at him, but as he tried swiping back at it he found the creature was much faster than the other Heartless. He had to predict just the right moment to strike before starting up a combo with his Keyblade. "They're so much stronger than those Shadows," Sora called out as he tried blocking one only for it to still push him back a few feet. "What is going on here?"

The arena stage was cleared in under a minute by the powerful fighters there. Krillin watched as Luffy took down the final one with a powerful Gum Gum Bazooka, and then he finally collapsed on his butt. "What were those things?!" the bald boy exclaimed in panic.

"I don't know," Goku said and scratched the back of his head. "They sure were weird."

Sora and Luffy gathered up some of the Munny that dropped from the monsters and they smiled at each other. Master Roshi, Oolong, and Launch all walked towards the stage where Krillin and Goku were already staring at the strange group of people standing in the middle. Roshi stepped up and he stared at the young man wearing a straw hat, before stating, "You do not seem surprised by the Heartless."

Their entire group's eyes widened and spun their attentions to the old man. Even Roshi's own students and friends looked at him confusedly and questioned what he meant by that. Goofy tilted his head while looking at the elderly man who was over five hundred years old. "How do you know about the Heartless hyuck?" Goofy questioned.

Master Roshi shook his head a few times. "Let us speak in private," he suggested, and the group of space travelers nodded their heads in agreement.

"Oi, what are you hiding old man?" Oolong questioned the pervy martial arts master.

"It is none of your concern," Roshi said and waved the pig away. "The rest of you," he turned to his students and their older friends, "should go to the hospital to visit Yamcha."

"Yeah!" Goku exclaimed as if he'd just remembered. "I need to go tell him that I'm going to beat Tien for him." Before anyone could say anything else to the black haired boy he turned and ran off.

"Wait for me!" Krillin called after him. The bald boy chased his friend, but he glanced back once and looked nervously at the group in front of Master Roshi. _Just who are those guys?_

After most people had left the arena, considering there were no other matches for the day, Roshi led the pirates and their friends back towards the waiting area. They gathered inside the same building they chose lots from and Roshi turned back to them, "What do you know of the Heartless?" he questioned at once.

"Well, what do you know?" Sora asked back. _We're supposed to keep it a secret, so we can't tell him what we know just because he asked._

Roshi nodded at the boy who answered him first. The kid did not look in charge of the motley group of youngsters, but Roshi could not tell and he looked Sora in the eyes. "Those Heartless, they were stronger than any Heartless I have seen on our world for several years."

"You know about the worlds?" Nami asked with interest.

"Yes, what I would like to know is how you know about them?" he stated, though it sounded like he was awaiting an answer this time.

Sora looked at Goofy who did not seem to know whether or not to respond to the old man either. Luffy spoke up though, "They're evil, and we're going to kick their asses."

Roshi gained a surprised look, then he started chuckling in a low tone. "Interesting. And that weapon," he continued, and he looked at Sora again, "would it happen to be the Keyblade?"

"How did you-"

"I am very old, young man," Roshi replied with a more serious nod. "And I also know that the Heartless are attracted to the Keyblade," his eyes narrowed as he spoke and a few of the group in front of him gained more nervous expressions. "I see that you also know this. Then, I would have to ask you to please leave our world."

"We would if we could," Nami admitted, holding up her hands defensively. "Our ship is broken though. Bulma's dad is working on it with our duck," she added, making sure he knew that they really were making an effort to leave.

"Hmm," Master Roshi hummed. He looked around at the group in front of him, "I do not know much about the circumstances around the Heartless and the Keyblade. However, I do believe that your arrival spells dark times not only for this world, but every world."

"That's what we're trying to stop," Sora said quickly. The boy held up a fist and looked into Master Roshi's eyes determinedly. "I won't let the darkness win." Roshi suddenly remembered the boy mentioning something about saving "princesses" and something about a specific girl. "I have to win," Sora added, his fist clenching harder, "to find Kairi, and save Riku."

Sora's friends looked at his back and they all started smiling as well feeling confident as the kid spoke. Sora lifted up his gaze and he lowered back down his fist, "But since we're stuck here for a little longer, I'll do my best to stop all of the Heartless that show up during our stay." He bowed his head a little, "I promise."

Roshi scratched his beard for a few seconds and then the old man smiled. "I guess that is acceptable, at least until the end of the tournament."

The others all smiled at him as well and Goofy spoke up, "We'll try not to meddle anymore sir."

"Very well," Roshi said. He turned from the group and started walking away, "I will see you tomorrow." He glanced over his shoulder and looked at both Sora and Luffy, "I look forward to your fights."

Everyone smiled at the old man and watched him leave. Once he was gone, Nami suggested going to get food and pulled out some Zeni that she got somehow during the day on her exploring with Robin. They went out to dinner and the women talked about how they had little luck finding the Keyhole, but Sora said that it was no problem since they had been running into it at the right time on every world. His optimistic attitude had everyone in high spirits, and they all headed back to the hotel looking hopeful for the following day.

When they arrived it was getting close to dark, and Usopp went to bed early as he was still pretty exhausted from his fight earlier in the day. The other pirates stayed up and talked for a while, and at one point Bulma showed up and invited them into the actual hotel instead of the huge vehicle she was letting them stay inside in the parking lot out front. They went inside and started playing cards with their new friends, and the mood was pretty cheerful despite Yamcha's brutal defeat earlier on.

Krillin moaned as Bulma took his last card and he fell back on his butt complaining about it. He looked up and turned to Luffy, "Anyway, where are Sora and Goofy?"

Nami sighed as she remembered what the kid told them right when they were arriving back at the hotel. A group of Heartless had appeared in front of them, and Sora told them to go on ahead and that he and Goofy would see them later. Since then, the boy had been missing. "He's out training," she said, then asked for any threes from Launch and smirked as the dark-blue-haired woman handed them over.

"Again?" Krillin asked in surprise, and the others turned to him confusedly. He saw that no one in the room understood what he was talking about and he brought up the night before when he and Yamcha went out to train and bumped into Sora and Goofy.

"No wonder Sora's gotten so strong lately," Nami said with a small laugh.

Robin nodded her head and Luffy smiled as well. They continued to play the game, but Master Roshi spoke up this time, "And what about your other comrade? The one who defeated Jackie Chun earlier?"

The pirates looked at each other and they all frowned. Luffy no longer seemed excited about the idea of having Smoker tag along with them, and he thought about his fight the next day and how he was planning on fighting the Smoke Man. Robin spoke up, "We don't know where Smoker-san is."

"Yeah, I haven't seen him since, well since that final match," Luffy admitted. "Wonder where he went?"

* * *

Smoker stood alone on the stage for the WMAT. His teeth were bared and a low growl constantly came out of his mouth. His fists clenched at his sides, and his white toga ruffled in the wind. _Mugiwara…_

_Roronoa… Marines… Heartless… Justice… MUGIWARA… Conqueror's Haki… Tashigi… MUGIWARA!_ Smoker's breaths hitched and his chest started heaving in and out. The white-haired Marine Captain was struggling to keep his thoughts straight. His eyes were bloodshot and he stared straight ahead off the side of the stage in the direction of the hotel he was supposed to be at. He knew he could not go there though, not now. He knew he would not be able to hold himself back if he saw Straw Hat one more time tonight.

A single light shone on the side of the stage he was looking at, so his shadow was directly behind him, making it impossible for him to see. He could not see the growing outline that was larger than his own body and stretching farther and farther backwards. He did not see the curving smile on the shadow that glowed white while the rest of his shadow vibrated and shook. Smoker just stood there furiously glaring out into the distance, no idea how great his shadow had become.

* * *

"What were you doing on that world?" Maleficent questioned as she walked up in front of a giant glowing heart indented directly in the wall on her left. Filling the heart was a rainbow of different colored swirls mixing around with lightning bolts shooting inside of them. The Final Keyhole glimmered, awaiting her to open it, but it was not yet time. She walked up to the man in the black cloak casually leaning back against the wall near it. "You were supposed to be here, keeping watch for the King."

"I wasn't gone for long," the green haired man replied, barely looking over at the witch who spoke to him. "Just needed to check something out."

"This is the second time now you've gone to see them," Maleficent continued. "One would start to believe you are still fond of your old friends."

The man in front of her scoffed. He closed his eyes while leaning back against the wall. "Is this really all you came here to talk about?" Zoro questioned.

Maleficent frowned that he ignored her taunt and gave her no answer to the question she was looking for. She sighed though and continued in her authoritative tone, "Riku has reached the girl, but it seems he was too late. Just like it was for that woman you brought here." Maleficent turned and looked at the form lying still on her back ten yards in front of Zoro. "I do not understand why you keep her body-"

"Her heart could still be-" he hesitated for a second, "somewhere."

"True," Maleficent agreed. "But the chances are unlikely." The woman with black horns and a green tint to her face frowned at Zoro, then turned and started walking away. She said in a menacing tone, "Do not leave your post again. And if you do happen to run into your _friends_ again," Zoro snarled at the words coming out of her mouth and she grinned while finishing, "make sure you take care of them, appropriately."

A black portal opened up in front of Maleficent and she stepped through it. Zoro finally turned and looked over at the spot she vanished from. "You don't need to tell me twice," he muttered. The man then turned swiftly and his black cloak waved in front of his body, revealing for a second his waist, and the three black hilts he had resting there. He opened up his eyes and narrowed them as he walked away, _Luffy won't make it off Earth with Smoker gunning for him. He should have let Smoker drown in Alabasta…_ As the thoughts of that time long ago snuck into his mind, Zoro growled even deeper and he stopped walking.

The man froze and he glared at the open floor in front of him now that he was at the bottom of the steps leading to the Final Keyhole. "Whatever," he grumbled, and he waved his right hand in front of him. Out from the floor arose ten demonic-looking Heartless, five on either side of him. They held up huge swords, had arms and legs like a human though entirely jet black, wings sticking out of their backs and horns over their heads. The demon Heartless were called Invisibles, and Zoro reached down to his side as they all started flying towards him at once. He drew one sword first and put it in his mouth in between his upper and bottom rows of teeth, then drew another sword for each of his hands. A pissed-off expression filled Zoro's face and he growled loudly, slashing his blades around him and sending every one of the Invisibles sprawling backwards. Half of them were destroyed in one attack, but three others recovered and flew back towards him.

Two of the five turned invisible like their name implied and Zoro saw small black wisps indicating where they were and those wisps flew towards him. While he blocked the other three's swords, he saw the wisps dropping down to his level so he jumped up in the air and avoided them as they reappeared and tried hitting him. As he lifted up in the air he pulled back two of his swords and glared down at the floor, before swinging his blades and releasing a huge ranged slash that tore through the rest of his powerful opponents.

He landed back on the ground and sheathed his swords. The man was not even panting. He looked up and stared down the long hall at a set of double doors at the end. "I'll be waiting," he whispered.

* * *

**A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for such a long wait. Tournament! Smoker! ZORO! Lots happening while the crew is stuck on this world. How long until the ship is back running? What will happen in Smoker and Luffy's fight? What about Zoro?! Find out soon on Broken Log Pose!**


	20. Chapter 20

**BLP 20:**

"I hope everyone's had a good night's sleep and are all ready for this upcoming round of matches!" Rick the WMAT announcer shouted.

"Doesn't look like it," Krillin muttered from back in the waiting room. He turned and looked at the boy not far away from him who was a year younger, but almost a foot taller than him. The bald boy with six dot-shaped scars on his forehead started snickering as he stared at Sora, passed out with his back against the wall not far away. The bald kid turned to Goku who was on his left and he shrugged his shoulders, "Guess it wouldn't be much of a fight anyway. Hahaha!"

"I don't know Krillin, I don't think it's that weird he's tired after training the whole night," Goku said, oblivious to why his friend was bragging.

Luffy looked a little confused as well and he stared at Sora, "Hey Sora, are you awake?" He questioned the boy who was in here when he arrived a few minutes ago.

Sora snored to answer Luffy's question and the pirate captain sweatdropped. He heard Rick start speaking up again and Luffy readied himself. He took a few deep breaths while Krillin and Goku walked up to him. "Good luck Luffy," Goku told the older teen. "I hope you win."

"Me too," Krillin said, though he looked more nervous as he did. "I sure wouldn't want to go up against the guy who beat Jackie Chun though."

"Yeah, be careful Luffy," Goku added, also feeling nervous for their new friend after seeing what Smoker could do the day before.

"Shishishi, don't worry," Luffy said and he grinned confidently. "I've got some tricks up my sleeve."

"Cool! Are you gonna knock him out like you did everyone else yesterday?" Krillin asked excitedly.

Luffy scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Actually, I don't know how I did that."

"Then how are you going to beat him?" Goku asked.

Luffy shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know." He clenched a fist and held it in front of him and continued, "But I plan to win.

"So will contestants Monkey D. Luffy and Smoker please come out to the arena?!" Rick shouted into his microphone for all to hear. His friends wished him 'good luck' (except for Sora who was still passed out), and Luffy started walking towards the stage. Rick's voice continued to echo around the WMAT arena, over the cheering crowds, and all the way into the waiting room, "Both of these contestants are new to the tournament, but trust me when I tell you that these are some incredible fighters we have for you today."

When Luffy stepped onto the stage, louder cheers rang out from the very front row and he looked over to see all his friends gathered there. Robin smiled at him from all the way on the left while next to her Nami and Usopp both waved fists in the air and cheered for him, the two of them being very close to each other while they did. A tired-looking Goofy was between their group and their new friends, and he also waved at him and called out his name with a cheer. On his other side there was Master Roshi, Oolong, Launch, Bulma, and even Puar who said that Yamcha wanted her at the tournament so she could return later and tell him all about it. While he looked at them all, something flickered in his vision and he spun his head to the left.

All of the cheering died down and mostly gasps were heard as out from the sky dropped a cloud of smoke. It crashed into the arena and puffs of white, and oddly darker gray smoke shot out all around the side of the stage opposite Luffy. The man who ate the Plume Plume Fruit was in the middle of all that smoke billowing around him. The smoke around the top half of his body dispersed and his face became visible to the spectators, most of whom gulped at the look the white haired man was giving his opponent.

Luffy almost said something cheerful, he almost called the man 'Smokey' and asked what was wrong, but he didn't. Instead, he took off his straw hat and he tossed it to the side at a surprised, but ready Nami who caught it. Luffy closed his eyes, and when he snapped them open he looked a lot more serious than a second ago. "Smoker, I don't know what happened to you, but the look in your eye is different now," Luffy said, while he held up his right hand in front of him. He spread his legs apart and thought, _Keyblade._ He did not think some crazy summoning like he normally did when he commanded his Keyblade to appear, and when it showed up he did not stare at the cool white hilt or the black key-shaped blade sticking out of it.

"Ah! So this is what the judges told me about," Rick called into the microphone, getting the crowd to look at him before questioning what Luffy was doing. "It seems the tool contestant Luffy is using came from his own body, and though unconventional, it is within the rules for him to use." A few people in the crowd muttered disapproval of the use of a weapon, but most people just nodded confusedly as they wondered where that weapon came from. Rick continued quickly after his announcement, "Now, fighters are you ready?" He saw Luffy give a small nod and grab the hilt of his Keyblade with both hands. He turned the other way and gulped at the look Smoker was giving Luffy, and he could tell that man was ready to go as well. "Okay! Then, let the second match of the twenty second World's Martial Arts Tournament, begin!"

Cheers erupted through the crowd and the fighters shot off towards each other. As soon as Smoker punched towards him, Luffy knew it was smart to pull out the Keyblade as he actually managed to block the Smoke Man's attack. Smoker growled and he bounced off the fist, before spiraling up in the air as Luffy swept at his lower body. His entire form looked like a spring as he swirled up higher and higher. Luffy snapped his head up and he frowned deeper seeing the darkening color to the gray smoke.

"Does, Smoker seem a little, gray?" Nami questioned, and she rubbed her eyes wondering if she was seeing things.

Usopp had a bad feeling in his stomach and he muttered, "Yeah." _What the Hell is he doing? Could he have, no… but, those Heartless yesterday, he wasn't there fighting with us. And-_ Usopp's thoughts scattered and he dropped his jaw as Smoker punched both fists down at Luffy and though his captain jumped backwards, the fists followed after until one collided with his Keyblade, and the other with his face.

The fist that slammed into Luffy's head knocked him backwards, but it did not hurt the man made of rubber very much. The hand opened up though while it pushed him back and Luffy's eyes widened as the man's fingers wrapped around his face. Smoker's fist changed directions and slammed Luffy straight into the ground. All of the smoke in the arena shot back up into Smoker's body that became full for the first time since he dropped from the sky onto stage. He fell out of the air and pulled his right fist back, snarling angrily and making his entire fist cover in black.

"Is that darkness?!" Nami exclaim-whispered at her friends.

Usopp thought the same thing for a second, but then he felt that same strange energy he felt while watching some of Smoker's previous fights. "No," he replied and shook his head, "but, I don't know what it-" Every one of them dropped their jaws as the man slammed that black fist down into Luffy's stomach, and their captain's head snapped up with blood splashing out of his mouth. His eyes bulged and turned red and his chest felt excruciating pain.

"A Marine Captain having that power is quite surprising," Robin spoke up and both Nami and Usopp turned to the black haired older woman. She saw their looks and though she continued to watch she stated, "Haki, Armament Haki." She turned to her comrades, "While working for Crocodile I needed to learn ways to stop him knowing that he would one day turn on me. I learned about his weakness to water, however I also learned of this technique called Haki. It is a technique that can stop even Logia Devil Fruit eaters. It was too difficult for me to learn, but it seems Smoker has some experience with it."

"So he can hurt Luffy, even though he's rubber?" Nami whispered, fear in her voice. She watched as Smoker took the hand he had Luffy's face wrapped with and lifted the pirate up above the ground, before slamming him back down much harder than before and cracking some tiles.

On the left side of the stage, Tien stared in with wide-eyes. _The man who defeated Chiaotzu is getting tossed around like a ragdoll! How am I going to beat a man like- NO! I am the strongest! I will defeat him! I __**will**__ find a way!_

Luffy finally managed to swing his Keyblade across his body and break Smoker's arm of smoke with it. The hand around his face faded and Luffy flipped so that he landed down on a foot and a knee. He was panting hard as his mouth and nose had been covered up for a while there, but he pushed himself to his feet after a few seconds and stared across the arena at Smoker who continued glaring at him while making guttural growling noises. His chest hurt a lot and he had no idea how Smoker hurt him so much while he was made of rubber, but he ignored that for now and instead pointed his Keyblade at his opponent. "Oi Smoker," he started, and he frowned at the Marine. "Why are you trying to kill me?"

A few of the spectators who were shocked by the powers and talking loudly to each other quieted down. They stared in with shock just like Luffy's own friends who were stunned to see Luffy like this. Smoker clenched his teeth so hard they felt like they might break. His fists clenched so hard that they turned into smoke to stop his fingernails from cutting into his palms. "Why?" Smoker growled out loud in his darkest tone. "Do you even need to ask?" His eyes were full of rage and he took a step towards Luffy while smoke continued billowing up around him, dark gray smoke. "I am the only Marine left. I _will_ serve Justice!"

Smoker's top half shot off of his lower body and he flew forward. Luffy was faster in his base form now than ever before though, so even without going Gear Second he still managed to dodge and Smoker tried wrapping some of his smokey body around him. Luffy bounced around the stage dodging Smoker's attacks, and he finally pointed his Keyblade forward and called out, "FIRE!" The tip of his Keyblade glowed red while Smoker charged him, and the crowd gasped as a ball of fire shot off of the weapon towards the flying Smoke Man. Smoker's body opened up in the middle though and the fireball went straight through him, making Luffy lower his bottom lip a little, though he was still able to get over it fast enough to dodge Smoker's counterattack.

"Didn't think that would work," Luffy muttered as he landed. "You've seen what the Keyblade can do, so I didn't think you would fall for it twice. You're too smart for that," Luffy continued to frown even as he talked to his opponent.

"Shut up," Smoker growled. "I don't want to hear compliments from a pirate."

"Pirate?" Bulma wondered aloud. She turned her head and saw Nami watching the fight worriedly, not really looking much like a pirate. _Though they did call Luffy their 'Captain,'_ she realized.

"Why are you so mad Smoker?" Luffy asked, still not referring to him as 'Smokey' anymore.

"You know damn well," Smoker snarled. _Haki of the Conquering King, a Devil Fruit, powerful enough to take down a Shichibukai, _he opened his mouth and said in a deep tone, "You must be stopped."

"Yeah, but I thought we were going to wait until we got back-"

"NO!" Smoker shouted at him. He hunched over and out of his back exploded a huge amount of smoke that wrapped around an entire half of the arena across from Luffy who actually took a step back at the sight of it. Its size was not what made him take a step back, but the swirling black wisps that came out of the cloud that was a darker gray than any smoke Smoker had made before. Smoker did not even notice it though, he just kept glaring ahead at the pirate not ten yards in front of him. "Everyone in the world! EVERYONE! Why do you get to be here?" Smoker shook his head and he looked down a little as he continued to speak in his deep tone, "Millions gone, but you and your crew, you got to survive. Why only you?!"

"You did too," Luffy pointed out, though his eyes were mainly focused on the growing wall of black behind Smoker. "And what about that girl you're looking for, umm, what was her name-"

"TASHIGI IS GONE!" Smoker roared. His dark cloud doubled in size and turned completely black.

The crowd started panicking a long time ago and some were already fleeing, but now even Luffy's friends were backing away from the edge of the stage with scared looks on their faces.

Krillin fell back over the other side of the wall he and Goku were leaning over. He stumbled backwards and yelled up to his best friend, "Goku! Get away from there!" Goku just stayed where he was though, staring at the two competitors he might have to face in a later round.

Sitting inside the waiting room, a young boy leaning against the wall opened up his eyes.

Luffy faced Smoker and he called out, "How do you know that? We found my crew out there, your friend could be-"

Smoker shook his head and did not even feel like explaining it to the pirate in front of him. Actually, the only thing Smoker felt at the moment was rage, and finally he noticed the huge cloud of black coming out of him and filling half of the arena. He had literally darkened the day and everything was covered in shadows. He looked down at his own fists and tried to focus Haki, only for it to work immediately. "So this is what Roronoa meant by the power of darkness," he muttered in a voice loud enough for Luffy and the other three pirates at the edge of the stage to hear him.

"You saw Zoro?!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Zoro was here?!" Nami shouted. She saw movement next to her, and she and Robin watched Usopp clench his white toga around the area of his chest with a pained expression on his face.

"Yes," Smoker snarled. He rose off the ground with black smoke coming out of the bottom of his feet. He rose higher in the air and he continued in a dark tone, "And he only confirmed what I heard from Maleficent. They told me that Tashigi is gone. Her heart, destroyed!" Smoker's look of rage took on another emotion for a second but his anger quickly overcame it. Plumes of smoke started flying down at Luffy who saw them coming at him way to fast and he pressed his hands down on his knees. The pirate bent his legs and pumped his blood to make his entire body start steaming.

"Gear, Second!" Luffy shouted, and he vanished as the smoke collapsed in on him. The black pillars followed him up in the air though as they knew where the fast pirate was going. Luffy still had his Keyblade in his hands as even though he was faster and stronger now, it would mean nothing if he could not hit Smoker. "Jet Key Pistol!" He shouted, and he punched a fist that crashed into the big wall of grayish black smoke behind the Marine and actually cut into it, making Smoker wince.

The announcer on the sidelines of the match was shouting the entire time about how crazy this all was, and how he wished he could run away like most everyone else. Rick ran over to Usopp and was now reporting while leaning over the muscular man's left shoulder, making sure someone strong was in the way of any stray attacks so that he may be able to block them. "And in an amazing turn of events folks, those of you who are still with me, competitor Luffy has actually managed to get a strike in on Smoker. This is truly one of the strangest fights I have ever witnessed folks, and that's saying something!"

Fists of rubber moving faster than the eye could see traded blow for blow with fists of black smoke flying out of Smoker's cloud. The Marine was shrinking down, not because he was getting weaker, but because he knew his surface area was making it easier for Luffy to hit him. He shrank himself down and then shot forward almost as fast as Luffy was moving in his Gear Second form, which startled the pirate who thought he had a huge speed advantage. Smoker's fists kept hitting him, and even though he did not focus Haki into all of them, their was something else causing Luffy pain now. The darkness.

"Now that," Usopp began, his voice sounding deep and serious. He reached up and grabbed the hilt of the broadsword back on his back for today. "That is not Haki," he stated, seeing the wisps of black that came off of Smoker's arms as the man stopped moving for a second. He faced off against Luffy who was down on his hands and knees now that Gear Second had faded off.

Luffy coughed a few times and blood splashed out of his mouth. All of the hits combined were pretty bad, but the pirate captain felt like the one Smoker hit him with first, before he was wary of the Haki, was the most devastating on his body by far. _I should have been more careful,_ he thought, aggravated at himself that he planned out moves that he did not think Smoker had seen before, but did not plan on there being attacks he had not seen Smoker use yet in battle. "Well, time to get serious," he began, his mouth curling up into a bloody smirk as he pushed himself off the ground.

Smoker saw Luffy's smile and instantly his look of rage grew more intense than ever. It faltered though as he heard Luffy's voice, "I won't die here." He looked at the pirate in confusion, and Luffy continued confidently, "I have to find Sanji and Chopper, and I've got to help Zoro if he's in a situation anything like yours Smokey."

"WHAT?!" Smoker yelled.

Luffy's face became more serious and he stepped towards Smoker, yelling loudly, "Snap out of it Smokey! You're supposed to be a good guy!"

"I am a Marine!" Smoker growled loudly at the pirate. "I stand for Justice!"

"Then why are you using the darkness?" Luffy asked just as loud, making Smoker hesitate. "Isn't that what you're so mad at anyway?"

"I'm mad at you!" Smoker roared.

"Why?!" Luffy yelled back. "I didn't take everyone you care about! I didn't defeat your men back in the gorilla world! The darkness did that, and now you're helping it!"

Smoker's furious expression twitched and the man's eyes darted to either side where plumes of black smoke were rising up around him. He heard the insufferable pirate captain in front of him keep shouting, "We were helping you get your friend back. You don't know that Tashigi is gone," Luffy continued and Smoker's face took a look of surprise that Luffy actually remembered his Sergeant's name this time. He was also surprised by what the pirate just said about her, but Luffy kept shouting, "Just because Maleficent told you she was, doesn't mean you should believe her. Bad guys lie a lot!"

Usopp dropped his jaw as from the second Smoker mentioned how Tashigi's heart was gone, he felt bad for the man, but suddenly he realized that he just like Smoker were believing the words of a witch. "And Zoro," Luffy continued, but his speech broke off as he called out his swordsman's name. He was the member of his crew who he had known the longest, the very first person he got to join him on his adventure. "He may have told you, that she, but he…" Luffy faded off.

"Zoro's in a dark place right now!" a voice shouted on Luffy's right and Smoker's left. They spun and saw the opening in the back of the stage that led up to the waiting room had a boy standing there. Sora stood right in the middle while Krillin and Goku looked at his back, the bald one from up near the waiting room where it was safe and the other from where he was leaning over the wall on his right. Sora continued loudly to the group he was traveling with, "But we'll get him, and Tashigi back, Riku and Kairi, and Chopper and Sanji too! We'll save everyone!"

The black smoke coming out of Smoker's fists and from his back started flickering back to dark gray, and occasionally down to even lighter gray or white. Sora stared at the man who was standing there with clenched eyes and fists, fighting an internal battle over what to believe. "Smoker, you are a good man. Please, remember what happened to Clayton?" Smoker clenched his eyes shut even harder and the boy talking him down finished, "You can't use the power of darkness Smoker, it isn't right. If you really do fight for Justice, then do the worlds justice by helping us instead of fighting us, by saving innocent people, by rescuing those lost by the darkness, and by putting everything back the way it should be. That's what I'm trying to do," he told the man, "and though Luffy might not be _trying_ to save the worlds, that's what we've been doing all this time."

"What are they talking about?" the blond-haired announcer questioned as he turned to to people next to him.

Nami flashed a nervous smile and looked at Rick, "Oh don't worry about them, they're crazy." She put a finger next to her head and spun it around a few times which made the announcer and most of their new friends sweatdrop at how stupid an explanation it was, while also being really the only explanation that made any sense at the moment. Master Roshi shook his head a few times at how careless these people were being with keeping their secrets hidden, but it seemed to be worth it as the dark aura surrounding Smoker had almost completely vanished and was getting weaker every second.

All of the smoke finally cleared, and Smoker stood there panting very hard. His heart was racing and he was taking deep breaths trying to calm himself down, _What the Hell happened to me? I could barely push that darkness out, it was like it entered my very soul. It almost took over… I can never get that out of control again._ Smoker took one more deep breath and then opened his eyes to look across the stage at the pirate still facing him. Luffy's eyes lit up and his mouth curled into a smile, "Smokey!" Smoker frowned and grumbled at the nickname, but his annoyed face had none of the fury shown on it from before. Luffy lifted back up his hands and his Keyblade appeared in them again, "Alright, let's finish our-"

"I forfeit," Smoker muttered. He turned away from the rubberman who dropped his jaw and just stared at the Marine's back as he walked away. "Go ahead to the next round, win us some money. That's what we're here for right?"

"Ehhh?" Luffy asked in a high-pitched voice, now more annoyed than anyone. "Where're you going?!"

Smoker waved him off. It was not a very serious wave so the others figured he would be coming back, he just needed some time to think. The man in a white toga dropped off the side of the stage and walked right by the tall, muscular, bald man who started snarling and glared with all three eyes at Smoker's back. _You forfeit? YOU FORFEIT?! How can I test my strength against you now? What was that power you obtained?! _He turned back and looked at Luffy who Rick called out was the winner and instantly got swarmed by his friends while he collapsed down to his butt in exhaustion. _The one who defeated Chiaotzu must pay, as must Goku who murdered Tao,_ he saw the kid with spiky black hair running out to congratulate Luffy too, and his rage only grew more intense.

Tien turned around and started walking away, right past Shen and Chiaotzu who saw their pupil and friend respectively marching away. "Tien," Chiaotzu whispered with worry in his voice.

Shen barely followed his apprentice though, his eyes darting back to the stage much quicker. The night before, he planned on going to the hotel Son Goku was staying at and assassinating the boy for his role in murdering Tao, but before he could leave, he got a knock at his door. _Roshi,_ he thought, remembering the old man who he used to call friend, who he trained with under Master Mutaito, the man who passed to them many secrets of their world. _Those brats are the Keybearers? Absurd! No matter. Soon, they will leave this world, but in the meantime, I will have my revenge against you, Son Goku._

* * *

"Welcome back folks! For those of you who left during the intense previous matchup, contestant Luffy has made it into the semifinals!" Everyone who only saw Smoker turning into a giant black cloud dropped their jaws as they realized that the opponent was the one who won that matchup. Rick continued announcing to the crowd, "Considering the amount of time we have left, we will have two more matches today, thus finishing the quarterfinal bouts!"

A lot of people started cheering, though some people and animal creatures were too caught up talking about previous matches to pay too much attention. "Now!" Rick shouted as they had waited far long enough for this next match while they tried to regroup their spectators. "Will contestants Krillin and Sora please come to the floor!" He shouted it and Krillin came walking out of the door with a fist raised. Rick started listing off Krillin's previous achievements from the year before while the little man grinned and laughed about it. While Krillin was laughing though, he, and a few other people, were looking around for Sora.

Just outside of the WMAT tournament viewing area, behind a tall wall that blocked them from sight, Sora stood with Luffy and the others next to a fully-finished Gummi Ship. "It's been days! Wack-wack-wack! How have you not found it yet?!" Donald exclaimed between angered quacks.

"Well there's this tournament," Usopp mumbled.

"And there's a big prize," Nami added sheepishly.

"Me and Luffy made it to the finals," Sora continued.

"And now I'm in the semifinals!" Luffy exclaimed.

"The Keyhole could be anywhere," Robin mentioned to the duck. "It may be difficult finding it on such a big world."

"Well then," Donald quacked. "It's time to go. Everyone on the ship." He motioned at the vehicle behind him that definitely looked sturdy, but was less aesthetically pleasing than when they left Traverse Town after receiving the additions to it.

"Aw, do we have to leave now?" Sora complained. He heard his name get called out again and he looked at Donald pleadingly, "Hear that? They're waiting for me."

Donald seemed to think about it for a few seconds, but he started shaking his head. "We've been here for too long," he said and crossed his feathered arms in front of his chest. "We need to get back to searching for the King."

"And Kairi too," Goofy added to the boy standing next to him.

Sora smiled at that addition and he sighed with a smile on his face, "Yeah, I guess you're right-"

"I'm staying," Luffy stated, and everyone spun to the pirate captain. He grinned and continued, "I want to win the tournament first."

"Luffy-" Sora began.

"Who knows when we'll ever be able to come back here?" Nami mentioned. "This world was not even on the map."

"Yeah, but neither was Bikini Bottom," Usopp mentioned.

"And how did we get there?" Nami asked the muscular man standing on her right. "Oh yeah, we crashed." He frowned and nodded his head, agreeing that this was pretty similar to when they crashed on Bikini Bottom.

"But we have to-" Donald began again.

"I'm not going," Luffy stated firmly.

"Gawrsh Donald, the King said to follow the Key," Goofy began to the duck.

"Then, looks like we're staying here a little longer," Sora said with a shrug, though he did not look too disappointed about it. He heard his name get shouted again, this time with an ultimatum about how long he had until he forfeited his match. People were starting to boo and he spun around, "In that case, wish me luck!" He called it out while already running off.

Donald threw his arms up exasperatedly, but as everyone else turned and followed Sora, he quacked at them to wait for him and chased them down. The duck only stopped to turn on the ship's cloaking mechanism so no one would find it before joining up with the others. The group pushed through the crowd at stage-side with many people moving out of the way when they saw Luffy with them, after seeing or hearing about his win in the previous matchup. Luffy threw his arms over the stage and grabbed the opposite wall with his rubber powers, shocking many people who still were not used to it, and he threw himself over Sora and Krillin who were both now on the stage.

"Haha, I didn't think you were going to show up!" Krillin laughed over at Sora.

"Wouldn't miss it," Sora bragged, though a bead of sweat did roll down the left side of his face considering he almost _did_ miss the fight. He held his right and left hand down to the right side of his hip and a flash of light glowed there for a second. In his grasp formed a Keyblade, Three Wishes, with a curved hilt and a gold color coating the entire weapon.

"Another one," someone in the crowd behind Usopp whispered.

"What are those things?"

"How does he make it appear like that?"

Krillin was staring at the Keyblade nervously but he turned back to Sora and smirked at him again. Both boys had beads of sweat on their faces, but Krillin looked the more confident of the two. "I've seen what that thing can do. Don't think you're going to get me like you got Nam."

"Haha," Sora laughed. Trying to sound cool, he said, "I know. I'll beat you some different way." His words made Krillin frown and the shorter boy in an orange gi snapped his hands up in a fighting stance. Sora could see barely any holes in Krillin's stance, and the bald kid's face took on a much more intense look to it.

Sora rose up his Keyblade a little from his regular stance, getting nervous by the look of Krillin's stance and wondering if he should protect the top half of his body better. He could hear Rick in the background calling out that the match was about to begin, but he was focused on his breathing, and the breathing of his opponent. _Krillin's strong. You saw his last fight in the preliminaries. He defeated his opponent with one hit, and I almost lost. I need to go with it from the very start._

"Then let the match-" Rick was about to finish shouting when Sora's body surrounded in bright light and when it was gone the boy was now holding two Keyblades, his Three Wishes and the one he received from the Deep Jungle, Jungle King. His clothes were all red, and he had a more confident look on his face. He shot Rick a look, and the announcer holding a hand up in the air said, "Oh yeah," he brought down his arm and yelled into the microphone, "Begin!"

The two fighters vanished. At least to most people they did. Nami lowered her bottom lip as she lost sight of Sora. She had seen him use Valor Form before, but never before had she seen, or not seen, him so fast. When he and Krillin reappeared they were in the center of the stage, Krillin pressing his right elbow up against one of Sora's Keyblades. The bald boy who was almost a foot shorter than Sora was not struggling too hard to push back against the weapon, and when Sora swung down with his other Keyblade, Krillin took a small step to his left making the weapon miss and slam down into the stage below.

Usopp's eyes widened at the dodge Krillin made. _He had time to dodge much further, but he only dodged the amount he needed to in order for Sora to miss. No unnecessary motions. He's good. Even better than Yamcha I'd say._ Usopp's assumptions were proven true as when Sora tried swiping back up with that one and across with the one Krillin was already parrying, Krillin dodge-rolled to the left and hopped up just as fast, kicking sideways for Sora's head. Sora barely ducked under it and his brown hair got swiped through by a leg, and Sora had to cross his Keyblades right away as Krillin came back down with a left punch. The younger teen realized too late that Krillin's punch was a feint and that another kick was coming from Krillin's other side this time.

The leg knocked Sora back a few feet and the boy oofed, but he still rose his Three Wishes and blocked Krillin's follow-up punch. The smirking Turtle Hermit student who thought he had gotten Sora lost the smirk, but stayed focused as he hopped up over Sora's Keyblades and tried punching down at the top of the kid's head. Sora pointed both Keyblades up though and he called out, "Fire!"

Krilln's arms that were punching down he brought back up and crossed in front of himself for protection as he continued over Sora's head. He had his eyes clenched shut since he thought he was about to be burned, but after a second he opened his eyes in surprise seeing that Sora was over ten feet away from him. He landed the next second down on a knee, but he pushed himself up to both feet just as fast. Sora smirked at him and Krillin pointed a finger, "Hey! What was that?"

Sora shrugged, then said, "Hey, just because I said 'fire' didn't mean I was actually going to use it." The kid started chuckling and he sweatdropped as that was really just an excuse, he had kind of forgotten about the "no magic during Valor" rule. _He's so fast and strong. Even in Valor I can barely hold him off. _Sora calmed himself down and he held back up his two weapons. _Need to keep fighting before Valor runs out._ He was the one to charge this time, and an annoyed Krillin lifted up his arms to defend as Sora reached him. This time though, Sora brought both Keyblades in on the left side and Krillin tried to block with only his right arm. The force from both magical weapons while Sora was in Valor form pressed against Krillin and knocked back his guard, surprising the boy right before the blunt blades slashed across his body and made him yell out.

Sora slashed back and forth for a second, but he couldn't even finish his combo before Krillin ducked down beneath one of the attacks. Sora kept swinging anyway though and as Krillin leapt backwards to dodge him, Sora swung one very hard swing of his Keyblades right as one started to vanish. His clothes lit back up and turned their normal half-red half-white colors, but meanwhile a giant slash of air was flying at Krillin who was descending towards it and looked like he had no way to avoid it.

Krilln's little black pupils widened for a second in panic. "Krillin!" Goku called out, not seeing a way for his best friend to avoid the attack. Master Roshi frowned as it looked like his student was already defeated, and in such a short time. Sora's friends grinned, and then everyone dropped their jaws as Krillin opened up his mouth and sucked in the biggest breath of air he could. His body filled up more and more, and he turned into a round ball-shaped person falling slower out of the air so that Sora's slash went right below him.

"Whoa! What?!" Sora shouted.

"He stole the Gum Gum Balloon!" Luffy accused.

"I have no idea how he did it without a rubber body, but I'm impressed," Nami said.

Krillin landed on the ground and he let out his air. Roshi stared at his pupil in amazement and Goku cheered his friend on from the wall where he and Luffy were watching the fight. They were the only two in the back area, except for the semi-finalist named Gurgle who was standing closer to the entryway to the stage, staring straight at Sora. Sora told Krillin it was a nice move, and Krillin smirked, saying it was only one of his many awesome moves he'd learned over the last three years.

"Three years?" Usopp wondered aloud. "He's been training for this for that long?" He turned to Master Roshi who was standing on his left just past Goofy.

"That's right, and I believe Krillin has improved the most of my three students. Watching him now he's like an entirely different fighter from three years ago," Roshi nodded his head at his pupil who returned to his fighting stance to face Sora who only had one Keyblade now, his Three Wishes again. "I don't think Sora will be able to face him without using that form of his. Its time limit really is a hindrance."

"Oh no," Nami whispered.

"Go for it Krillin!" Bulma cheered.

"You can do it kid!" Launch shouted as well.

Nami looked over and saw Bulma smirk at her and then rub her fingers together showing she was still looking forward to that bet. Nami gulped and looked back at the stage, "You can do it Sora! Win!"

Usopp smiled at the orange haired woman next to him and then pumped a fist up in the air as well, "So-ra! So-ra!"

Nami joined in with him and then Luffy as well from over at the other side of the arena. Bulma was not going to be outdone though and she started chanting, "Kril-lin! Kril-lin!" The audience split half and half and everyone started cheering out the name of the fighter they wanted to win.

"And listen to how into this match the crowd is folks! Well, actually I guess you don't have to listen since you're the ones shouting!" Rick announced.

Krillin took a deep breath and then grinned over at Sora, "That was a good move, but it's over now that you used up your trump card."

"Oh you think so huh?" Sora questioned back, keeping a smile on his face that kind of threw Krillin off.

The smile Sora had threw more than just Krillin off, as some of the spectators just talking about this gained confused looks. Roshi could tell the kid was not bluffing, but Usopp and Nami looked at each other confusedly. Krillin called Sora out for being a liar, and he sprinted across the arena towards Sora, then kicked with his left leg. Sora rose his Keyblade and blocked the leg, then pushed the Keyblade to the other side and blocked Krillin's next kick, then back, then back, blocking every kick the shorter boy swung at him. He slashed with his Keyblade and Krillin ducked, then the bald boy punched with his left hand, only for Sora to block with his free hand, actually catching Krillin's hand and pushing it away in one motion. He slashed down at Krillin's head but Krillin moved slightly and caught the center of the shaft by wrapping his elbow around it. Sora punched forward with his free hand though to make Krillin loosen up his grip and he tugged the Keyblade out, only to be hit by one of Krillin's legs, one that made him wince, but snap right back forward and slash at the boy who had to block his Keyblade once again.

"Whoa! How is he doing that?" Usopp exclaimed, actually shocked by what he was seeing. _I spent three years training on a world with Gods and Demigods walking among the people. But Sora, he's, he's progressing faster than I can imagine!_

"Well," a voice spoke up between Usopp and Roshi who were both staring in shock at the fight in front of them. They turned inwards and saw Goofy standing there with droopy eyes, and the tall dog-guy yawned before continuing, "Sora and me were up all night fighting the Hear-" he stopped as a still-annoyed Donald slammed his wand down into Goofy's shin to get him to shut up before he revealed anything about the Heartless.

"Oh, Donald," Nami began in a whisper while Goofy yelped and jumped around on one foot. "Master Roshi somehow knows about the Heartless already," she informed the duck who missed their talk with him the day before. Donald spun to the old man in surprise and Roshi nodded at the creature in a serious way before turning back to the fight. Donald figured he could question the man more about it later and he turned to the stage as well to continue watching Sora's fight.

Although Sora was managing to keep up with Krillin, once Krillin got over this fact it was hard for Sora to match him. Krillin had trained in martial arts for much longer, and much harder than Sora had. The kid with a shaved head quickly learned that Sora had little experience making feints, or judging when Krillin himself was making one. Krillin started faking two, three attacks each time, some of which seemed obvious to Luffy, Goku, and some of the more skilled martial artists watching, but difficult for Sora to determine. The kid's increased speed and strength did not save him from a barrage of punches that ended with two kicks that sent him sprawling to the floor and tumbling across the arena floor.

Krillin started laughing and he was about to say something, but Sora pressed a hand down on the ground and slowly pushed himself back up. He looked across the stage at Krillin, and now that they had some distance he pointed his Keyblade up in the air, "Thundara!" A black cloud opened up above Krillin and five lightning bolts dropped out of the sky around him. The kid tried dodging them all, but one hit him in the left arm and while he was shocked, another zapped him on top of his shiny bald head.

His whole body filled with static and he stumbled around for a second, only to heard the word, "Blizzara" get shouted much closer to him. He focused in front of him and saw a blurry figure running at him, but a wall of white and blue blocked him out from Sora for a second as the blizzard from his attack slammed into the front of Krillin's body. The boy shivered and he jumped backwards to get away from it, only to see a ball of fire flying through the ice.

Once Sora sent the fireball flying, he took a few deep breaths and muttered, "Cure." He had barely any MP left, but that was why he saved using Cure until the very end. He wouldn't be able to use all that other magic if he had wasted it on Cure in the beginning. He felt a little rejuvenated once the green magic soaked through him, and he smirked through all of his fading magical attacks to look for Krillin on the other side of it. The shorter boy was there alright, but he was not lying on the ground moaning like Sora was hoping for.

_Magic! Dodon Rays! Why can I only use my fists… well, I mean Goku can do it, so why not try?_ He held his hands out to the sides and mumbled, "Kamehameha," and pushed his hands forward. Out from his hands came a small puff of blue light and Krillin's eyes opened wide as he realized he really did have the potential for it. The bald boy covered in a few burns and scratches looked across the arena to his opponent who was panting pretty hard, "I'll hand it to you Sora, you can pack a punch. But now it's my turn," Krillin put his hands down at his right side and put his wrists together, "KAME-"

"What is he-" Nami began, but stopped as someone started shouting near her.

Everyone around them looked in at Master Roshi who was panicking and shouting at his pupil, "You can't Krillin! You aren't ready for the Kamehameha Wave!"

"What would that be?" Nico Robin questioned.

"Oh you'll see," the pig named Oolong said and he rubbed his hands together. "My man Krillin there has got this match in the bag."

"HAME!" Krillin shouted, and in between his palms formed a ball of blue light.

"You can do it Krillin!" Goku shouted, while Luffy looked at the bald boy in amazement.

"Krillin NO!" Master Roshi shouted.

_I need Valor Form back now! That attack looks way too strong to handle! Come on, didn't I take enough damage! Didn't I deal enough myself to fill back up the Drive Gauge? Come on!_ Sora panicked and took a step back, and another one as the ball of light in Krillin's hands grew even larger still as Krillin slammed his hands forward. "HAAAA!" Krillin yelled.

A ball of blue light flew away from Krillin and left a beam flying after it from Krillin's hands all the way to the ball at the end. It moved faster than most people could see, a five foot diameter ball of energy tearing straight at Sora whose eyes opened wide in the second before it hit him. Suddenly, the idea of the tournament and having fun wiped from the minds of all of Sora's friends. Even Krillin himself dropped his jaw and Goku shouted at him to stop this time instead of Master Roshi who looked down ashamedly.

"I never should have shown them that technique," he said in a depressed tone. No one around him even heard his words though, they were too busy staring at the giant explosion that filled up almost half of the stage and rose higher than the walls on the back of it.

Luffy's eyes grew wider and wider and the pirate leaned over the wall he was on towards the heat of the explosion. "SORA!" He shouted.

"WAAWAWA!" Donald quacked at the top of his lungs and he ran at the side of the stage with Goofy.

Krillin lowered his hands and he looked down at them in shock. Donald and Goofy grabbed the side of the arena. Rick shouted something and most of the audience were either staring in shock or wincing and looking away as they thought of what remained of the boy inside that explosion who looked so nervous right before it hit him. Then everyone froze. A gust of wind rushed through all of the animals' fur and feathers, and humans shivered as the gusts flew by them. Luffy stopped trying to climb off the wall, Donald and Goofy stopped trying to climb up, and Goku, Krillin, and Master Roshi all looked at the stage in confusion.

A huge cloud of smoke covered the area where the blue explosion faded, but now that smoke was getting pushed around and swirling back and forth. All at once, the smoke shot out in every direction. Spectators lifted their arms to protect themselves from it, and people started coughing as smoke filled their lungs. Coughs sounded over the speakers as even Rick seemed to have breathed in some of the smoke.

"Ladies and, ack ack, gentlemen," Rick shouted and he started rubbing his sunglasses with one hand while he spoke. "In some sort of strange event, the smoke has cleared, and-" he hesitated as he finished wiping his glasses, and then the announced dropped the microphone in his hands.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-What?!" Krillin shouted, taking a step back as he looked at the creature ahead of him. The beast looked just like Sora, well, it kept his body and hair shape. It had turned entirely black though. Sora looked down at his hands and feet. _Drive Form kicked in, but I went into this strange Anti-Form again. I thought it had to do with me being angry last time, but maybe, maybe it's just because I've used Valor form too many times in a row. I never did ask Merlin what caused this._ Sora lifted up his head and looked at Krillin who took a step back and stared scared back into Sora's eyes. _Use his fear,_ the black creature thought.

Without Keyblade in hand, Sora shot across the arena at Krillin even faster than he did while in Valor Form. Krillin was still panicking so he barely managed to bring up his left arm in a block, but then yelled out anyway as Sora's hand had sharp claws of darkness sticking out of them. His entire body was covered in wisps of darkness that kept rising and fading away in the air. Sora slashed once at Krillin, then swiped back and forth like crazy before doing a flip and coming down with a kick.

"Is that Sora?" Goku asked Luffy who was staring down with his lower lip still dropped.

The pirate heard the kid's question and turned, then looked back at the stadium and nodded his head a few times. "Yeah, that's him." _Wow Sora. You really are strong. I can't wait for the championship match. I want to fight you the most!_

Sora was relentless. He was like an animal, and Krillin could barely dodge and block fast enough. Krilin saw an opening though and he jumped forward, slamming a fist into Sora's unprotected chest. The black form flew backwards and tumbled across the floor a few times, before Sora slammed his hands and feet into the ground and skid back, dragging claw marks through the solid tiles. Krillin gulped as he saw how easily Sora cut through the ground, and he looked down at his arms that were now covered in scratches.

"Is that really you Sora?" Krilin asked as the creature got back up on all fours again. Sora looked at him with a face like one of those of those monsters that attacked them the day before. "Alright then," Krillin said. He frowned angrily over at the boy who not only survived the Kamehameha, but made Krillin worry about him too. "Then I'm going to keep fighting!" He charged again, not risking another move that he had not perfected, and going with the techniques he had trained for years. He charged and punched and kicked at Anti-Form Sora who may have been as fast and strong as him, but had none of his magic from earlier.

Sora frowned mentally as Krillin seemed to notice this weakness in his form and went on an even harder offensive. Sora saw Krillin charging from his left, so he did a three-sixty spin with his claws out that managed to catch Krillin on his right when the bald boy tried faking and jumping to his other side. The front of Krillin's gi got torn open with three cuts through it, and some trickles of blood came out the front of his uniform. Krillin lifted up a hand and grabbed his chest, then looked in front of him in panic as Sora brought his arm back again. Sora swung his claw forward, and he smacked an open, white, palm into the center of Krillin's chest.

Both Krillin and Sora looked down at Krillin's chest for a second and at the human hand planted firmly against it. They lifted back up their heads and looked into each other's eyes realizing at the same time that Sora was no longer in Anti-Form. Sora jumped backwards and Krillin did the same, both of them panting heavily, and both falling down to one knee as they gained distance from each other.

Rick ran back up to the stage and grabbed his microphone from the side of it. "Well folks, that was weird! But it seems like Sora's strange technique was not enough to stop the powerful Krillin!"

Krillin heard that praise and smirked, standing back up to his feet. He kept panting and was looking over at Sora in annoyance, but he wiped some blood from his lip and stated loudly to the kid still on his knees. "Alright, counterattack!" He pointed his head down so the shiny part was facing Sora and he charged, swinging his arms madly at the boy who had to stagger up to his feet to try and stop Krillin.

Sora tried blocking the attacks that definitely seemed less coordinated than before, but Krillin was too much for him even in an angered, cloudy state. Sora made his original Kingdom Key appear in his hands and he tried blocking as best he could. Blood splashed out of Sora's mouth as Krillin landed a heavy punch into the side of Sora's jaw. The boy went spinning through the air, but he mumbled out, "Cure," and green light surrounded him, making him feel just a little better before he slammed into the ground and got hurt even more.

Krillin frowned as he saw a cut on Sora's arm fade, while his cuts were still bleeding bad. He looked at his own chest and some more sweat appeared on his face as he realized those cuts Sora's dark form got him with were deeper than he originally thought. All the adrenaline was taking his pain receptors down, allowing him to focus on the fight instead of his injuries. The same could be said for Sora though, who was staring back at Krillin with one droopy eye, blood trickling out the corners of his mouth, and shaky legs.

_I need a plan! I, I could go Valor again, my Drive Gauge doesn't feel like it went down at all for becoming Anti-Form. Guess it's more of an annoyance than anything considering I can't heal during it. But, I can't heal in Valor either. It won't be enough anyway. I can't use magic and that's been what's most effective against him! _Sora saw Krillin catching his breath and he could tell from the look on the martial artist's face that Krillin meant for this next attack to be the final one.

_If he keeps healing himself I'll run out of stamina before him. I need to end it here, no matter what._ Krillin pulled one arm down to his side with a clenched fist and lifted his other hand in front of his body with two fingers curled outwards.

_He's not just relying on strength and power. Valor can't defeat a fighter like Krillin. I need something that can! I need strategy. I need wisdom, and intelligence. What if, what if those other forms Merlin talked about… what if they can be taken on just like Valor form?_ Sora's eyes lit up and he held up his Keyblade in a more determined way, staring forward at Krillin as if daring him to attack. _Think Sora! _He thought while Krillin started charging at him. _I need powerful magic! Magic, and a strategy to beat Krillin. Give me strength, Drive!_

A bright white light surrounded Sora as Krillin was almost at him, and the short teenager with six dot-shaped scars on his forehead slowed down a little. He hoped not to see the dark form appearing again, though he was ready to charge that one or the red one if need be. What he saw though made him hesitate, and that hesitation gave Sora the chance to look down at his body in amazement. His clothes had changed color to blue, including his yellow shoes that were now bright blue. Though he was still just holding his Kingdom Key in his right hand, the end of the weapon was shimmering white light. He looked down at his feet and watched as they lifted off the ground a tiny bit, and his shoes and legs covered in a blue light.

Krillin stopped hesitating and decided to charge his opponent, yelling out a war cry as he did. Sora tried backing up, and his eyes opened wide as did his friends' as his feet literally glided across the top of the arena. The bright lights around his legs shimmered and he jumped up in the air as he slid away, doing a flip in midair and pointing his Keyblade at Krillin. As he pointed it, a beam of white light shot out of his weapon and flew down into the bald boy who was still chasing him. The attack hit Krillin in the forehead and the kid got knocked back on his butt. His pupils lifted up and went cross-eyed at the burnt point in his forehead.

"Coool!" Sora exclaimed as he landed back on the ground and kept sliding around like the entire stage was made of ice. He started racing around and around while pointing his Keyblade at Krillin, _I needed a form for long-distance, and I got it! I can feel the Drive Gauge going down fast though! Need to finish him quick. _He charged at Krillin and yelled out, "Fire!" right as Krillin was getting up. Instead of firing a fireball at the short man, two streams of fire surrounded Sora's body and started spinning around like crazy right as he crashed into the shorter boy.

"Ahh!" Krillin yelled and got knocked back in the air. Sora pointed up his Keyblade and fired a few more white beams of light, then did a flip off the ground that he could not stop gliding on and yelled out, "Blizzard!" Instead of a cloud of ice shooting at Krillin, four larger chunks of ice shot in different directions, then all seemed to lock onto Krillin who they flew towards and slammed down into the ground.

"Thunder!" Sora yelled, but Krillin started rolling out of the way to dodge. "Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!" Sora yelled, not worried about his magic bar as he felt confident his new power was going to take him all the way to the end of the fight without needing to recharge. He could barely feel any Magical Power getting drained from him, but he did notice every time he used an attack his Drive Form's time limit would go down faster. _Need to end this now!_ Sora thought, and he lifted up the yellow hilt of the Kingdom Key above his head and shouted, "THUNDER!"

The bolts Krillin was dodging at fast speeds were coming down all over the place, but the boy knew what he had to do. _Just wait out his form and defeat him with your next attack! You can do it Krillin!_ He cheered himself on, but when he heard Sora yell out that last attack super-loud, he looked up in the air and dropped his jaw. There was nowhere he could run. So much lightning fell from the sky that it looked like rain. And as Krillin got zapped in all that raining lightning, he could barely hear Goku calling out his name for him to dodge, and his eyes stayed closed as the silver blade of Sora's weapon slammed into his face, knocking him up in the air, and out of the battlefield.

Sora landed down on the floor of the arena and his pristine, bright blue clothing suddenly faded back to his normal, beat-up and dirty attire. He stared off the side of the stage and watched as Krillin landed down on the grass outside of the ring. Rick, just like everyone else, stayed quiet for a second. Then, right before the roars of applause started, the announcer lifted up the microphone to his mouth and shouted, "Krillin is outside the arena! Sora wins the match!"

* * *

**A/N Whoohoo! Luffy and Sora both win their matches against some fierce competition. Having Smoker come along with the crew was inevitable after the Deep Jungle, but I felt just having him have some petty squabbles with the crew on the occasional world was not really enough conflict and he needed real character development to get him to be more at peace with his current situation. Now though, Smoker will have calmed down and def be more compliant, however the Dragon Ball Z world is not over yet. The tournament is coming to an end, Tien is looking for a way to become more powerful, and Zoro is still lurking about. The Gummi Ship is fixed but the crew decides to stay just a little longer. This world has lasted a great many chapters but there's only 1 left (1 and 1/2 really), but the next chapter is the climax so I hope you're excited. Anyway, thanks for reading! 'Till next time!**


	21. Chapter 21

**BLP 21:**

"Sora, you did it!" Luffy shouted as he hopped over the wall from the finalists' area onto the stage. He ran over to Sora who once he lost his Wisdom Form, fell down to his butt in exhaustion. Sora was panting really hard, but hearing Luffy behind him he turned his head a little and flashed a pirate a smile.

"Ha, ha, did, you ever, doubt me?" Sora asked between breaths. Donald came running up on stage with Goofy while Goku ran the other way and hopped off the stage to go check on Krillin who was moaning as he lay on the ground. Donald ran up and used healing magic on Sora, but the kid held up a hand after receiving one burst, "I'm fine," Sora told the duck. Donald tilted his head to the side confused at why Sora would tell him to stop considering he was still injured, but Sora stood up himself and started walking to the edge of the ring.

He hopped down and walked towards Krillin whose friends were all gathered around him. "Here," Sora started, and they turned to the kid who just defeated their friend. Sora waved his Keyblade and stated, "Cure." A veil of green light shimmered over Krillin making the cuts on his chest seal up, his black burns fade, and the cuts and bruises around his body become fainter. The boy stopped moaning as much, but when he opened up his eyes he still looked defeated.

"Oh man," Krillin mumbled as he sat up and stared at the people around him. "I can't believe I lost."

"It's okay Krillin," Goku told his best friend while helping him up to his feet. "There's always next time-"

"But I wanted to stick it to that three-eyed freak for Yamcha," Krillin said in annoyance. He turned to Sora and frowned at the spiky haired taller teen, "I call hacks! That weapon is-"

"Krillin!" Master Roshi snapped, shutting the little bald boy up instantly. The group spun to the old man standing there who glared down at his pupil and started lecturing him about being a sore loser and other stuff like that while complimenting Sora on his skills. Sora looked downcast for a minute after hearing Krillin, but once Roshi was done talking, Krillin sighed and admitted that Sora was 'pretty good.'

"Wow, thanks Krillin," Sora told the younger boy. "I don't think I've fought anyone as skilled as you before though."

"Really?" Krillin asked excitedly.

Sora nodded his head a few times. He opened back up his mouth, but someone cleared his nasally voice behind him and he turned around. Standing there with a blue hat on his head and a wand in his hand was Donald, tapping his right foot on the ground impatiently. "It's time to go," Donald quacked.

"Huh?" Sora asked. "But I thought we were staying until the end of the-"

"Nooo!" Donald quacked in an outstretched voice. "There isn't any time!"

"I already told you Donald, we aren't leaving yet," Luffy told the duck.

"Since when do you make the decisions?" Donald quacked angrily at the pirate.

"Well I'm the Captain," Luffy said like it was obvious.

"WHAT?!" Donald quacked.

Most of the people around them were just staring at this exchange with confused looks, though Krillin started asking Sora what they meant about leaving before the tournament was over. As Sora explained how they were kind of in a rush to get out of there, Nami interrupted him and mentioned that they could stay for a few more days if it meant getting that prize money, to which Donald instantly started quacking at her again.

"But Donald, Sora and Luffy are both in the semi-finals," Goofy began in a quiet voice to his friend. "Gawrsh, if they leave now a bunch of people are going to be upset."

"Shuddup ya' big palooka!" Donald snapped at the royal knight. "A lot more people are gonna be upset if we don't leave now! And the King's one of them!"

"Why do you need to leave so soon?" Goku asked and tilted his head to the side.

"We don't," Luffy responded casually.

"QUA-QUA-QUACK!" Donald yelled, throwing his arms up in the air and quacking like mad.

"Is everything alright over there?" a voice asked very loudly and the boisterous group turned to see Rick standing at the edge of the stage looking at them all. Not only the announcer though, but every single person in the crowd was staring their way, and a few of them shied back realizing how much attention they were drawing.

"Yes, we're fine. Now, get on with the next match already!" Bulma snapped up at the announcer.

"Whoa!" Rick exclaimed. The man stumbled a few steps back and wiped his forehead of some sweat. "O-kay then! We're going to finish today's quarterfinal matches with a doozie folks! Will Son Goku and Gurgle please come to the stage?!" Rick shouted. Everyone wished Goku luck and the boy climbed back up on the stage before giving his friends another wave. Rick started announcing how Goku was the second place winner of the last tournament, a student of Master Roshi, and that his opponent was a mysterious figure in the martial arts world.

"What is he wearing?" a bear man muttered just a row behind where Sora and Luffy's group were watching from.

"I can barely see his face."

"What's up with his eyes?"

The figure in a brown trench coat was almost impossible to see. His hands did not come out of his sleeves and his coat covered up his feet too. As he stepped through the entryway to the waiting area it looked more like he slid across the floor like Sora in his Wisdom Form. He had a hat with a large rim pulled down over his face and his coat was pulled up over the bottom half of his face too, so all that was visible were his eyes and the small amount of black skin showing around them.

"Hello there Mr. Gurgle-sir," Goku greeted his opponent. "I look forward to fighting you."

"Grr, gurgg, grll," the person in front of Goku made noises like his name implied.

Nico Robin chuckled from the sidelines and Nami turned to her with a questioning look. Robin saw the look and said to her friend, "I wonder if when the monks asked for the contestant's name, they just wrote down the noise they heard?"

"Gurgle," the figure on the stage mumbled loudly, and Nami started laughing, before closing her mouth and feeling a bead of sweat drip down her face as Gurgle turned her way. She quickly realized he was not looking at her though, but at a boy standing not far on her left. She turned and saw Sora staring right back into the man's little white eyes, staring suspiciously at the figure who reminded him of something he did not like.

Goku scratched the side of his head as he did not really know what the figure was doing. Even as Rick started telling them to get ready, Gurgle kept staring right at Sora. Rick called for the match to begin, and the black figure looked back at Goku. It moved forward a foot, and then Goku was right in front of it. Goku punched five times into the creature's front in what looked like one hit to most people there. Actually, most of them just saw his arm sticking out like he had punched, but never saw the movement itself.

The figure in a trench coat lifted off the ground and up in the air a few feet. He flew back over ten yards and off of the stage. Half of the audience shouted, "Whaaat?" The other half just lowered their bottom lips at Goku's speed and ability to end a quarterfinal bout in a fraction of the time it took anyone else. Rick started shouting amazed praise for the boy and he called for someone to go check on Gurgle.

When they all looked back away from Goku towards the supposedly injured fighter though, everyone was confused to see there was no one there. Even Goku had taken his eyes off of his defeated enemy for a second and when he looked around he felt a weird sensation in his gut now that the guy was missing.

He was not the only one. Usopp turned to Robin and he saw the woman looked back at him and nod. They had both seen it when the figure lifted off the ground: what was underneath his trench coat. "We should go after him," Usopp stated, turning to the group and suggesting it.

"After Gurgle? Why?" Nami questioned, but she saw Sora and Luffy both nod at Usopp as well.

Sora turned to Donald and flashed the duck a small smile, "See, there is still good reason for us to be here."

Donald frowned, but he nodded his head and lifted his wand while Goofy pulled out his shield next to him. Sora started running off with Luffy at his side, and the rest of their group followed after them. Krillin stared after them confusedly, but he turned back and ran up to the stage to congratulate his best friend, and complain that he got the harder of the two quarterfinal matches they were in.

The travelers who chased after Gurgle ran as a group away from the stage and over to a bunch of tables where spectators ate between rounds. There were umbrellas sticking out of the middles of every table, and they all had different colors. The teens, pirates, and animals looked around and they were frowning as Gurgle was nowhere in sight.

"Where do you think he ran off to?" Nami questioned.

"I don't think Gurgle is a '_he_' at all," Sora began. "I think it's a Heartless."

"He was too restrained to be a Heartless though," Nami added. She looked at the boy who turned to her as well and she continued, "Most Heartless would attack you and Luffy right away because of your Keyblades."

"That's not always true though," Usopp started. Everyone turned to the muscular man in a white toga, "Remember the Colosseum? Those Heartless entered tournaments too. I think, Hades probably put them up to it."

"Like Maleficent and Jafar, this Hades must have the power to control the Heartless," Robin observed.

"So someone who can control the Heartless, is here?" Sora asked, looking around to see if the others were in agreement.

Before their discussion could continue, Nami yelled out in fright and everyone looked ahead of them to see the umbrellas on every table lifting out of the holes in the middle. There were yellow umbrellas, red ones, blue, green, and a black one in the back. Oozing darkness spread out around a little area of them to make a small face with white beady eyes in the middle of them.

"Heartless!" Goofy exclaimed. He ran forward and slammed his shield into one of the red umbrellas, right before a blast of ice slammed into his back from one of the blue ones.

"Let's take them down!" Sora shouted. He lifted up his hands and his Keyblade formed in them.

The group ran forward together and attacked the creatures of the dark. Once a few of the Heartless were defeated, several spheres of black formed in midair and Heartless wearing suits of armor flipped out of the bubbles. Simultaneously, a few pots leaning up against a wall nearby grew six spider-legs each and started chasing the fighters around.

Nami grinned upon seeing the Pot-Spiders, as she remembered from back in Agrabah that these Heartless tended to drop a lot of Munny upon their defeats. She charged one with her Clima-Tact and spun in across the entire front of her body. She smashed the blue staff into the potted creature of darkness and knocked it backwards, but another one took that moment to come up from behind her.

"Nami!" Usopp shouted. He charged towards her and dropped his jaw as the Heartless hit her before he could reach. Then, Nami's body disappeared and Usopp spun his head to see another Nami not far away from the one who just vanished.

"Mirage Tempo!" Nami called out, and four more versions of herself, each only varying a little bit, appeared on the battlefield. Usopp sighed a breath of relief, then saw one of the Umbrella-Heartless swooping down at him while spinning really fast. He waited until it was right about to hit him, then it was like he vanished, appearing on the opposite side of where he was just standing. The spinning Umbrella fell, split in two and fading away.

"Only a few left!" Sora called out. He pointed his Keyblade ahead at three of the remaining Umbrellas and saw that none of them were yellow. He smirked and called out, "Thundara!" A bunch of lightning bolts dropped out of the air on top of the red and blue Umbrellas, making their white eyes grow wide for a second, right before they exploded into dark nothingness.

Luffy snapped his arm back after taking the head off of an armored Heartless, and he looked around for any other opponents. After a few seconds he smiled and put his hands behind his head, "Shishishi nice!"

"Is that it?" Nami questioned. She looked next to her and saw Goofy standing there with his shield still raised though. After him she could see Donald standing on top of a table and he took a step backwards nervously. "Guys?" She questioned the dog and duck, wondering what was wrong.

"Something's here," Sora said, loud enough for all his comrades to hear him.

Robin was standing only a few feet behind Sora and she stared at the boy curiously for a second, wondering what it was he could feel that she could not. That's when it appeared. He walked out from behind a wall across the courtyard where Sora, Donald, and Goofy were already looking. Luffy snapped his head that way too and his eyes lit up, "Smokey!"

Smoker stumbled out from behind the wall and he looked their way, "Run," he said, then fell down to his knees.

"Did, did he just say-" Nami started, then every one of their jaws dropped as the wall behind Smoker exploded towards them.

Smoker was on his hands and knees and he coughed up some blood on the ground. _Get up!_ He yelled at himself mentally. He looked over his shoulder and the sweat all over his face intensified, actually getting him to the point he could get back up on his feet. He jumped up and turned his legs to smoke, crossing the courtyard of turned-over tables and knocked-down chairs to reach the group of people he was traveling with.

"What's happening Smoker?" Sora called down at the man.

"That bastard," Smoker snarled.

"Wait a second," Luffy muttered, turning slowly to Smoker. "Did you see Zoro again? Is he here?!" Luffy spun back to the destroyed wall that was settling dust and smoke from the explosion.

Smoker shook his head once, "I told him to bring me to Tashigi, but I never fulfilled my part of the deal." He turned and looked straight into Luffy's eyes, "He told me I had to kill you. But, I-" he ground his teeth and turned back to the wall he came around himself, "I betrayed my Justice on the words of a pirate. Still, after telling me no, he was not done with me." Smoker started coughing again and he rose up his arm, then looked down at his sleeve and the dark, almost black, blood on it.

"What's wrong with you?" Usopp snapped over at the man he was still angry at, but at least wasn't trying to kill them for now.

"He ripped out my shadow," Smoker snarled. "Turned it into a monster with all," he hesitated, but muttered for them all to hear, "with all the darkness in my heart, or so he said." _If I wasn't going to do his bidding on my own accord, he still needed to take us out. But, I don't understand why he himself would not do the job?_

They all kept staring over at the wall, when a bead of sweat rolled down Sora's face. "Does anyone else feel like the smoke has been settling for way too long?" He was staring at the hole where more and more dust and smoke kept simmering, but he felt like it should have stopped a while back. As he was looking though, the smoke and dust stopped falling at all, and just shot forward across the courtyard like a gust of wind had slammed into the back of it.

Most of them crossed their arms in front of their faces, but Smoker yelled over it all, "Don't let the smoke hit you!"

Suddenly what he told them about it being a Heartless created from himself made them a lot more worried. They snapped back open their eyes and tried dodging in different directions, but the smoke still hit them and they yelled out in pain as it cut and burned them. When it all passed, the group collectively got back up to their feet and turned around in the direction of the arena now. The tournament was clearing out, and this area was a little away from the stage so there were not many people around, but those that were ran away when they saw the cloud of smoke shrink down into the shape of a man.

Shadow Smoker looked just like the man himself, only gray. His entire body was gray and his eyes were beady and white like other Heartless. "Why isn't it black? Like Sora's back in Traverse Town," Usopp mentioned, and they all remembered back to that time, except for Robin who just tilted her head wondering what they were referring to.

"It looks more complete, more like Smoker," Nami whispered to herself, and then her eyes went wide as she spun from Smoker to Sora to the Shadow. "Maybe, it's because Sora doesn't have any darkness, but Smoker was so close to giving in before."

"I don't have any darkness?" Sora whispered. He thought back to his fight with Krillin, and back in Traverse Town like was just mentioned. _Anti-Form, I know what it is. Whether I try to ignore it or not, that's the darkness in my heart. _He did not say a word as he walked forward and rose up his Keyblade. "Valor!" He called out, and his body surrounded with light.

"If this Smoker is a Logia like the real one, I won't be able to touch him," Usopp muttered angrily.

"Me neither," Nami whispered and Robin nodded her head as well.

Smoker growled and Luffy saw how badly hurt Smoker was from before he even got here. "Usopp, Nami, Robin, get out of here," he stated it in a calm voice and Usopp nodded. He put a hand on Nami's shoulder and she looked up into his eyes, and nodded. The two of them turned and ran off after Robin who was already jogging away. "Alright," Luffy started, and he lifted up his hands. A Keyblade formed in his grasp with a white hilt and a long black shaft. "Let's take him on!"

"Let me help!" a voice called out. Luffy, Sora, Smoker, Donald, and Goofy spun and saw Goku flipping through the air over and over. The young boy with spiky black hair landed next to Sora and grinned at him. "I can't wait for our semifinal match Sora," Son Goku said excitedly. "But," he turned back and tilted his head in confusion, "why are there two of that guy?"

"Don't you notice anything weird about that one?" Sora questioned, and then he shook his head fast as he realized he was wasting valuable time while in Valor Form. Sora snapped his Keyblades down to either side and he charged forward. Luffy pumped his right fist down on the ground and he shot forward even faster than Sora, but as Sora got a head-start, they both reached Shadow Smoker at about the same time.

The following combos from their Keyblades happened too fast for a distant-watching group of pirates to be able to follow. Even Usopp had to shake his head a few times to stop everything from being so blurry and find the two Keybearers he was supposed to be watching. Donald and Goofy ran in for attacks of their own, but the Heartless knocked them back effortlessly making the Keybearers look back in worry for their friends. Shadow Smoker punched forward two fists that disconnected from his arms and plowed an off-guard Luffy and Sora backwards, but Goku sprinted in between those arms and appeared right in front of Shadow Smoker. After two of his fists went right through the man, Goku pulled in his arms to the side.

"If punches won't work," he began, and a ball of blue light started to form between his palms. "Kame-HAME-HAAA!" The tiny blue ball grew larger and larger until it was big enough that it surrounded the Heartless's body entirely. His attack pushed forward and the gray man behind it held up his hands to try and stop the attack.

"Waawawa!" Donald yelled out and swung his wand above his head. A bolt of lightning slammed down on Shadow Smoker, zapping him enough that he flinched and the attack pushing against him kept flying right through his body. Smoke dispersed in the air above the blue beam as it kept flying into the distance, and while Luffy and Sora called out how cool the attack was, Goku stared confusedly at the smoke as it turned fully black and then sizzled out of existence.

"What was that thing?" Goku wondered. He turned and looked at the people behind him to see if they knew, but Luffy started whistling and looking the other way, while Sora shrugged his shoulders unconvincingly.

"Damn," Smoker growled, and he finally collapsed down again. He was panting heavily and he could barely breathe. _I can't believe he created that thing from my own body. All this nonsense about hearts and Heartless suddenly seems a lot less childish._ He lifted up his head a little suddenly feeling presences right in front of him. Smoker lifted his gaze up the legs of several people standing in front of him, and he saw five disapproving looks back down at him.

"We need to talk," Usopp said, arms crossed in front of his body, a tone so serious in his voice that his crew members could not remember a time they had heard it before.

* * *

**That Night**

Inside giant camper Bulma leant their group, parked in front of the hotel their new friends were staying at, the group of travelers were meeting in a more grim mood than usual. "I vote we leave him behind," Usopp spoke up, and he did not care that Smoker himself was sitting across from him in the camper, leaning against the wall with his butt on the floor.

Under very direct instructions, Sora had not healed the man yet. Smoker looked exhausted, and earlier Sora wondered if that monster Goku defeated was not really that strong, but he quickly realized that the reason Smoker was so injured was because he was stuck fighting that Shadow Smoker for a while, weakening it for them. "Leave him behind?" Sora repeated softly. He looked at the Marine with white hair whose face was shadowed by his own bowed head. "But, what about the person he's looking for. Tashigi, right?" he questioned Smoker directly.

"If we find her, we can save her ourselves," Usopp countered. "Smoker knows we will too. That's why he isn't saying anything."

"I agree!" Donald exclaimed. The duck walked forward and held up his feathery arms, "We don't need everyone coming from world to world! Quaack! I've been saying that all along!" He turned to the scary older man next to him, and added, "Nothing against you, sir, but it's our duty to the King not to meddle in other worlds! Bringing everyone-"

"We get it," five people muttered at the same time. making Donald drop his bottom bill.

"What about you Smoker?" Luffy asked. He was oddly serious which showed how much this question mattered. He specified, "What do you want to do?"

Smoker sighed. The Marine lifted up his head and looked into Straw Hat Luffy's eyes. Luffy looked right back down at Smoker's face, bruised, with trails of blood going down both corners of his lips down to his chin where droplets dripped off. "I've got no right to say so, but I wish to keep going with, you." Saying it hurt his pride, but for some reason it did not taint his feeling of honor anymore than he already had that day. "If there is a chance to save my Sergeant," he paused and thought back to what Luffy said during their match. Instead, he changed his speech, "There_ is_ a way to save Tashigi, and I want to find it on my own. I still can't trust pirates, not with this, not with _her._"

"Huh," Luffy mumbled thoughtfully.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Sora asked. The pirates looked at him and Sora turned a little to Donald, "I mean, I think we should listen to Donald." He turned to Smoker and gave the man a small smile despite Smoker's frown in his direction. "I know you can't trust pirates because of your own reasons, but I'm not a pirate. I'll save your Sergeant, I promise." He held up a fist in front of him and smiled confidently, but Smoker's serious expression did not fade at all.

"How about," a woman's voice started and they all looked to the far front of the vehicle where Robin was quietly reading a book. She looked up from it and continued, "We wait until the end of the tournament to make a decision?" A few of the others looked at each other and started nodding. Robin continued, "It would be foolish to keep Luffy and Sora up when they both have such important matches tomorrow. Let us leave this discussion for tomorrow."

"Agreed," Nami said.

"Alright," Usopp consented.

"Yosh!" Luffy agreed.

"Grrr," a low mumble growled out and they all looked to the middle of the vehicle. Standing there was Donald literally shaking where he stood. The duck snapped his head up and quacked, "This is ridiculous! The ship is fixed! The King is out there! We need to leave!"

"Donald," Sora began.

"Gawrsh, Donald's right Sora," Goofy started to his friend as well. "We've been here for days hyuck, we need to go save the world order." Goofy did not even mess up saying 'world order' this time like he had on multiple previous occasions and Sora frowned realizing that it was probably more serious this time.

"Luffy-" Sora began.

Luffy plopped down on the floor where his blanket was and he smiled up at the ceiling. "I can't wait for my fight tomorrow. I'll get that three-eyed bastard for you Usopp." He closed his eyes and then laughed as Usopp made a joke about Tien's eyes. He could tell Sora was still looking at him and he spoke up, "I made up my mind. We're staying until the end of the tournament."

"But-" Sora continued. He saw Luffy start frowning and Sora just closed his mouth. "Nevermind," he whispered. He turned to Donald and Goofy and shrugged apologetically at his friends. "Soon guys. Let's just finish up the tournament, then we'll be so strong we can speed through a bunch of worlds faster than we would have been able to before." He tried twisting it around on Donald, but the duck started shaking his head disappointedly and turned around, going to walk to a different part of the camper to sleep.

"Stupid Keyblade," Donald mumbled as he marched off. "Picking stupid Keybearers."

Luffy's eyes opened up and the pirate frowned deeply. In the corner of his eyes he saw Sora look downcast at least until Goofy patted him on the back and they left to go to sleep as well. Luffy kept frowning however. _Why did it pick me? I don't want to save the universe or anything. I just want my nakama back. Sanji, Chopper... Zoro._ _Zoro... You want me dead? I thought, why would, we- you were right._ _**"Luffy, something seriously wrong is happening here. We might actually have to leave without the extra food if things go south here..."**__ He warned me. He wanted to leave. __** "We should leave before whatever is happening here happens! The crew could be separated, we might never get back here, our dreams don't exist in these other worlds. You'll never be the King of the Pirates!"**_

As Luffy thought it he realized something. Those were the last words Zoro had said to him. He then told Zoro to go get Riku, while he tried to save Sora, but after that he had not seen Zoro again. It didn't seem so bad to him, but now he thought about it a lot harder. _Years. Zoro's been gone, for years._ He rolled on his side, _That's not fair. Why did- _he rolled the other way and clenched his eyes shut. _I wish I didn't break the Log Pose._

* * *

"Welcome folks to another day at the World's Martial Arts Tournament!" Rick shouted into his microphone and the crowd got riled up.

Sora and Luffy were standing together with Goku inside the waiting room. The three of them were stretching and talking to each other, but the mood was noticeably a tad heavier than the day before. What did not help was the shadow looming over them that kept drawing their attention to the other side of the waiting room.

"He looks meaner than yesterday," Sora whispered. "I didn't think that was possible."

Luffy frowned over at the three-eyed martial artist as well. He thought about Usopp, and then Yamcha getting his leg shattered. "I'm gonna kick that guy's ass."

"Hold on," Goku started, and Luffy turned to the younger kid with spikier black hair than his own. "I'm going to be the one who beats him. For Yamcha."

"How are you going to beat him when you don't even make it to the finals?" Sora asked. Goku turned to him and the two started bantering in a friendly way, but Luffy could tell Sora definitely looked nervous about his upcoming fight, whereas Goku was totally confident.

Tien kept glaring at their area of the waiting room with a hateful look in his eyes. A flash suddenly showed itself in his mind and he remembered the day before. The sun was gong down, and he was still at the tournament arena. _Master Roshi is Jackie Chun. Why would he show himself to me? Fighting with anger, rage, those are important teachings of Master Shen! What was he talking about? Why did he say those things?! He just wanted to save his pupil's life. I will not spare Goku though, not after learning he killed Tao._

The triclops clenched his fists at his sides, and his two normal eyes narrowed at the enemies before him. Luffy and Tien heard their names get called and they both started walking out towards the arena. Sora followed after with Goku for a second, but he stopped short and turned around. He looked back into the waiting room and watched as several spheres of darkness appeared in the air. Air Soldier Heartless flew out of the spheres, creatures with the same dark faces as the others, but with orange wings sticking out of their backs, orange aviator helmets over their heads, and red claws on their dark purple hands.

Sora snapped up his hands and his Keyblade formed, allowing him to charge his enemies with confidence. Luffy stopped walking towards the stage with Tien. The latter kept walking, ignoring his opponent, but Luffy looked down at his right hand that was shaking. His Keyblade formed and his eyes went wide, and then he thought about the last time this happened and he spun around. Looking back up in the waiting room he saw Sora battling a squadron of Heartless with Goku running back to help him already.

He took a step that way to help out, but Rick called out his name again and Sora turned towards him, smiled, and waved at him to get going to his match already. Luffy looked surprised, but he nodded back and smirked before turning and heading to the stage. He let his Keyblade vanish for now as he stepped out on the arena, and the crowd of people roared out his name and cheered for him as he held up his fists above his head.

"Crush him Tien Shinhan, and make it to your next match," Shen called up to his pupil.

Tien did not respond, making a tick mark appear on the side of his master's face. Next to the Crane Hermit, Chiaotzu looked at the stage nervously and the albino midget whispered, "Tien." Something was off about Tien. Even his normally harsh demeanor was snarky and sarcastic at times. And when he became serious, he looked like a scary, but mostly composed warrior. Tien looked beyond angry, and Rick was hesitating to announce the match after remembering what Tien did to Yamcha after the end of the last match.

"I just want to remind the competitors that if your opponent, is killed, you are also disqualified- eep!" Tien shot him a glare and Rick's face turned pale. "A-Anyway, let's start the match."

"Why does Luffy keep getting the crazy guys?" Nami whispered nervously.

Smoker was standing to the right of the group and he said nothing about her remark, though his forehead did scrunch up in annoyance. Usopp darted his gaze over to see how the man would respond to that, and he smiled smugly as the Marine stayed quiet. _Guess he can't deny he was definitely pretty crazy yesterday. _

"Well, fighters to the ready," the announcer announced. "Let the first semifinal match of the twenty second World's Martial Arts Tournament, begin!"

You could hear a pin drop in the stadium as every single person shut up. They closed their mouths and sweat started pouring down their faces. Tien did not waste a single second to remove the upper half of his green gi. The fighter ripped it off in one tug, then brought his arms down to his side and start yelling. Luffy himself slowly dropped his jaw as Tien's skin started shaking, and out from the fighter's back sprouted two more arms as muscular as his originals. Luffy would have whispered, 'cool,' if he was not slammed in the face by a fist in the next second.

Luffy's head snapped so far back that his neck extended and his head went stretching all the way off the opposite side of the arena. He grinned, and yelled out, "Gum Gum Bell!" slamming his head back as fast as he could to try and hit Tien. When his head was almost directly over his own body, Tien decided to dodge, moving a little to the left and then slamming his upper left elbow down on Luffy's upper back, smashing him into the arena, before following up with a kick that sent Luffy spinning around up into the air.

_So fast!_ Luffy thought, though he was not expecting much else after seeing the man's fight with Yamcha. He did not get hurt much from those physical attacks, but he knew Tien had other methods of beating him he needed to avoid. As Luffy hit the top of his arc, he punched his right fist out to the side as hard as he could without stretching. It was a technique he had been hoping to try this fight, and he smirked as it paid off.

"Whoa," Sora gasped out as Luffy's arm pumped and his went into Gear Second in midair. _Normally he has to pump his arm on the ground and press his legs too. He's advancing so fast,_ Sora watched as Luffy pumped a fist again to make his light skin turn red and steam to start coming off of him. The pirate did not bring his Straw Hat onto the arena with him, leaving it instead with Nami who had it tied around her neck like Luffy sometimes did, resting on her back.

"Go for it Luffy!" Nami shouted up at her captain.

"He's much faster now," Master Roshi admitted from where he was standing on the left of the group of travelers. "But is it enough to match Tien?"

"Of course," Usopp said without hesitation. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face and he whispered, "Prove me right Luffy."

"Gum Gum," Luffy began and he pointed both of his legs down at Tien as he fell towards the stage. "Jet Stamp Gattling Gun!" He slammed his right foot down at the triclops and then immediately sent his left. To the spectators it looked like Luffy had dozens of legs slamming down one after the other faster than they could see. Tien dodged for a second or two before he was hit by a foot and winced, underestimating how much it was going to hurt. More attacks started hitting him and Tien smacked himself in the chest with his two right fists, then grabbed his left biceps with those hands.

Tien's entire body started steaming red like Luffy's, but unlike the pirate's, Tien's body became harder. Luffy's attacks started bouncing off of him as if he were a thick steel wall, only without leaving any dents. Steam lifted off of Tien's body and the man only got pushed down into the stage, making a deeper crater with every hit, but showing no sign of pain.

Luffy snapped his legs back up to his body and did a backflip before landing. Once he hit the ground, he had no time at all to prepare before Tien charged him again. Luffy lifted his right arm to block, but Tien was coming from the other side, only feigning to the side Luffy tried guarding from. Luffy saw his right fist coming though a second later and he leaned his head back, letting Tien's fist fly right over his face. The pirate lifted up his steaming left leg and swung it around in a Gum Gum Jet Whip, though he could not shout the name as every attack was happening within seconds of each other.

Tien tried jumping over Luffy's swinging leg, but it hit him in the shins when he was almost above it. The triclops started spinning over and over in the air before slamming down hard because of a fist now planted in his back. "Jet Pistol!" Luffy yelled once his fist snapped back and Tien was face-down in the stage.

The three-eyed man in the stage made a deeper crater than before and debris flew out from it. The crowd cheered. Some people gasped, and Tien's comrades shouted out his name in panic. "Get up Tien! You are disgracing the Crane school and me!" Shen yelled at his disciple.

Tien was already getting up on his feet, but hearing these words made his face look even darker than a second ago. Gone were the witty remarks he was making in his fight against Yamcha, gone was his personality. Tien turned and looked over at the Crane Hermit, then after the old man flinched he looked back at Luffy. "Grrr," Tien snarled, baring his teeth at the younger teen.

"That fool is going to lose me the match," the Crane Hermit growled. The man with pointy facial hair and a pair of sunglasses on thought hard for a few seconds and then he smirked upon having a great idea. "Chiaotzu," he began, turning to the floating midget next to him. He whispered quietly to the albino student who then looked at him as if asking if he was serious. "Do it," Shen snapped.

Chiaotzu hesitated but nodded slowly at his master. He looked back to the stage where Luffy was running towards Tien again, and Chiaotzu subtly put up his hands in front of him. Tien was charging at Luffy too, and right when they threw their fists at each other, Luffy's face filled with agony and he brought his arms down to his stomach. Chiaotzu gripped Luffy's stomach with his mental powers, and Tien hit him in the face with a fist so strong that Luffy's friends shouted out his name in fear.

"Luffy!" Sora yelled and then snapped his head around to follow Luffy's path bouncing across the stage.

Tien stared at the pirate who bounced twice before managing to stop himself right at the other edge of the arena. He was breathing heavily, and the announcer was shouting how great of a hit he just landed. "This is **my** fight," Tien growled, his voice echoing around the stage. He lifted up his right hand and stuck out his index finger.

Luffy was groaning in pain and he leaned up a little from the floor, only to go wide-eyed at the sight of Tien holding up his finger to prepare for one of those beam attacks Chiaotzu used on him before. "Need to, get up," he muttered, but as he pushed down on the floor his stomach screamed out in pain again and he dropped back on his back. "Ahghhgh!"

"Luffy get up!"

"Captain-san!"

"Luffy!"

"Wawawa! Get up you big rubber idiot!" Donald shouted, making a few of his friends around him look at the duck in surprise.

"I, can't," Luffy moaned out and could barely crack open his eyelids enough to see Tien slam his arm down to start the attack. But then the pain was gone. Luffy was not focused on the pain anymore though, and neither was anyone else.

"DODON RAY!" Tien roared, and he pointed his hand to the side of the stage, at the small white figure floating there with his arms risen at Luffy. Chiaotzu's eyes only had a millisecond to widen before the ball of red light slammed into him. Shen turned his head in shock and looked at the explosion next to him that engulfed his second strongest pupil. "Stay out of my way," Tien growled, and those who looked away from the explosion and Chiaotzu's burnt, falling body, turned only to scream or move back in fear.

Tien had both of his hands risen up with two more Dodon Rays forming on them. He turned his head and glared across the stage at Luffy who was staggering up on his feet, but then turned a little more. Luffy turned as well, and Sora and Goku who were watching from the stage wall looked to their lefts in surprise at the figure who was now standing in the doorway to the back of the stage.

Usopp's eyes grew, _That's right! We never did find him yesterday._

Standing there in his trench coat and hat, was Gurgle. The short man with very little black skin showing turned his head towards Tien and he started sliding across the arena. Rick lifted back up his microphone after shouting into it about Tien going crazy. "Uh, contestant Gurgle please get off the stage, the match is still going on..." he faded off towards the end as Gurgle walked straight up to Tien who did not back away.

The student of the still in-shock Crane Hermit stared at the man in front of him for a few seconds. No one knew what was going on as he looked into the eyes of the dark form. But while he was looking into Gurgle's eyes, a circle of darkness spread around the cracked stage under his feet.

"Oh no," Usopp whispered.

"He's giving in to the darkness," Robin stated calmly, though a bead of sweat was dripping down her face.

Bulma and Launch looked over at their new friends confusedly, but were getting very nervous from the looks they had. Usopp gulped and he started in a quiet voice, "If a normal hunter like Clayton could get so strong, what's going to happen if someone like Tien..."

Gurgle's hat fell off and two antennae stuck up over his entirely dark head. The Heartless under the hat started dissolving, turning into black nothingness that swirled up in the air and started surrounding Tien. The triclops stood there and took it though. _This is what happened to Smoker. But he denied it. I will accept this power. I will make it my own!_ Tien rose his fists and watched as his muscles covered in black wisps that made curved lines around his arms. It looked like there were black snakes on his arms wrapped in coils up to his shoulders, and then around his torso, neck, face, and his legs under his green pants as well.

Tien's entire body became covered in thick black stripes. There were lines of his normal skin as well, but those were still a tanner shade than usual, and shrinking slowly as the black stripes grew thicker. His bald head had a single stripe going from his forehead down to the back of his neck. His eyes were still white on the outsides, but the irises in the middle sent chills down the spines of those watching. They were bright red with tiny black pupils in the middle.

He looked across the stage at Luffy and he smiled. Luffy snarled at the sight of the man in front of him who he already hated, but was now a monster on top of that. He lifted up his right hand in front of his body and a Keyblade formed in it. "Let's-" Luffy started shouting, but never finished as Tien kicked off the floor and reached the other side of the stage in a second. Tien had a knee lifting up towards Luffy's chin and Luffy's eyes darted down while his head leaned back, though he knew he would not be able to dodge in time. It turned out that was not even necessary though, as the knee never finished, and instead a fist flying in from the left slammed into the side of Luffy's head.

The young man in an open red shirt slammed down into the stage and bounced right off the other side while coughing up blood. He opened his eyes and his vision was blurry, but what he did see were all the people right below him he was about to crash down into. He became more focused realizing where he was and he threw his arms back towards the stage, only for Tien to jump up before he could grab onto the wall, and grab him by the wrists. The three-eyed man twisted his own arms once, twice, then so many times he looked like a blur. Meanwhile, Luffy was getting swung by his extended arms in a circle over the entire stage, until Tien finally whipped up with his arms and then slammed down as hard as he could. Luffy first went flying high into the air, and then an aura surrounded him because he was brought down so fast into the floor right in the middle of the crowd.

"Move out of the way!" Krillin shouted, jumping backwards and pushing some people with him.

"Get out of here!" Usopp yelled to some civilians around him while he tried to cut up flying debris with his longsword.

Screams rang out around the entire arena. Luffy hit the ground so hard that cracks shot out around his impact point and then the ground dented down and debris went everywhere. Rick the announcer would have shouted about Tien's victory if he were not right in the middle of where Luffy was slammed down. The blond WMAT announcer pushed his hands down beneath him, "Ack, ack agh," he coughed over and over while trying to open up his eyes. His eyes stung when he did because there was so much dust around him, and Rick spotted his sunglasses on the floor between his arms, shattered. "Oh man, I really liked those glasses," he said, before looking up and completely forgetting about them.

The dust from where Luffy slammed down was starting to clear, but the screams were not stopping. Krillin was looking around in panic because besides the two people he pulled away, almost everyone was hit by some debris. He spotted Bulma lying on her stomach on the ground to his left, and he ran over to her, "Bulma! Bulma are you okay?" He turned her over and the woman started coughing, but she did not look very injured so Krillin sighed in relief.

He helped her up to her feet and they looked in towards the spot Luffy was slammed down. "Whoa," Krillin said while sweating pretty badly. "I hope Luffy's okay."

"Wh-Why don't you go check?" Bulma suggested, though she and Krillin shared similar looks of fear as they stared at that dust cloud. Their fear was intensifying every second as more of the dust settled to the ground, revealing the muscular silhouette right on the edge of the stage looking down at them. The shadow dropped off the stage and started walking forward, between people on the floor grabbing at their arms or legs in pain. A different shadow started standing from right in the middle of the dust, and the dust was thin enough now that they could all see who it was.

The figure in the center of the smoke pushed down on his knees, and his lower legs pumped once before his entire body was red again, and steaming. His opponent also had what looked like steam coming off of his body, only his steam was jet black. "I didn't think you'd be satisfied with just losing the tournament," the muscular figure walking towards Luffy with crossed arms in front of his chest. He only had two of them now, but they looked more menacing than ever with the black lines coiled around them that seemed to just emit a dark energy.

Luffy spat to his right and though he was not paying attention to it, he did catch that the color of his spit was more red than usual. Tien was using the power of darkness now, so even his physical attacks were hurting a man made of rubber. Luffy lifted up his left palm and held it out in front of his body facing Tien, he pulled his right fist back to his side, and yelled out, "Jet Pistol!"

A fist flew forward so fast that the remaining dust around him and Tien dispersed like a widening tunnel around his stretching arm. Krillin's eyes went wide and the short teen felt a serious pit of despair in his chest, for Luffy's arm cleared a tunnel through the dust, and gave him a clear view of Tien standing there holding Luffy's right fist in his hand.

"Jet Rocket!" Luffy lifted his feet off the ground and allowed his outstretched arm to retract, pulling his whole body at Tien who was not expecting the reckless attack. Luffy smashed into Tien with enough momentum to knock the two of them backwards, but Tien did not release Luffy's fist and he now used it to yank a non-stretched Luffy towards him and grab the pirate around the throat with his free hand.

Luffy started choking and writhing around in Tien's grip. "Contestant Tien! You have won the match! Now please, put Luffy down," Rick could see as well now and he was taking small steps back even while he shouted into his microphone.

"Tien Shinhan!" This voice, Tien did listen to and turned his head a little with a frown. Master Shen was staring at him and continued, "You have made it to the finals. I never doubted you, now, return with me at once so that we-"

Tien turned away from Shen and looked back at Luffy. More specifically, he looked at his own hand around Luffy's throat, and after a few seconds he started grinning. Shen was shocked that his pupil who he had taught to fear him would turn away, and furiously he snarled at Tien and yelled, "You will respect your master!" He ran forward to teach his disciple a lesson.

Tien was smiling at the hand he had choking Luffy, but he spotted Shen charging at him and turned his head at the last second. Shen made eye contact with all three of his bright red eyes and the Crane Hermit flinched. Wrong move. Tien spun and threw Luffy at Crane so fast that the two of them tumbled across cracked pavement until they were off of the damaged area, and started making new damaged area with their bodies. Luffy slammed into a wall head-first, though since he was rubber it really did not feel like much. Crane on the other hand, slammed into a brick wall and smashed straight through it, then bounced off of another wall following it and lay on the ground barely able to moan.

"We have to stop him!" Nami shouted as she saw Tien turn and look at where Luffy was pushing himself off the ground again. Their captain still had Gear Second powers, but Nami did not know how much longer that would last, and considering how many times he had used it recently she knew he would not be able to power up again without seriously damaging his body.

The navigator turned to Usopp who had stepped in front of her to cut up debris flying their way a minute ago, and she froze when she looked at him. The muscular, tan-skinned, long-noised, pirate and hero, dressed in a white toga with a golden belt around his waist, and who had a broadsword in his right hand, was shaking where he stood. _I couldn't land a hit on him before, and now he's turned himself into a monster! Luffy's getting his butt kicked. How am I- How could I, stop someone like that?_

"Hey triclops!" a voice shouted far to Usopp's right. He glanced over and saw two figures standing on the stage now. The shorter of the two had spiky black hair and his fists risen in a fighting pose. The taller of the two boys had brown spiky hair, and he slammed his hands out to his right side, forming a yellow hilt in them with a long silver shaft sticking out of it. _Sora,_ the muscular hero thought, and he watched Sora call out, "If you're gonna fight Luffy, you're going to have to deal with us too!"

Sora hopped off the stage with Goku, and then on either side of them came two more figures. One rose his shield and the other his wand, and Usopp listened as Donald and Goofy shouted out in agreement with Sora. He clenched his eyes shut and his curled his fists in anger at himself. Still, he could not help his legs from shaking and he cursed himself over and over again in his mind. "Usopp," a soft voice spoke in front of him and he opened up those clenched eyes. "You are not the same man you were three years ago. You've shown me that every day since we found you at the Colosseum." Nami reached to his right hand that was wrapped around the hilt of his broadsword, and she gently clasped both of her hands around it. He looked down at that hand, then back into Nami's eyes as she stared into his and said, "Now go save Luffy. Go save our captain."

Usopp's eyes turned huge and he nodded with a dumbstruck look on his face. His legs were no longer shaking, and he turned his head to see Tien looking at Sora, and then the three-eyed monster turned back to Luffy and grinned some more. "Bring it on, freak," Luffy spat at his enemy, and he rose up his steaming arms.

"People! Fighting outside the ring is against the rules, if you continue-" Rick stopped shouting into his microphone as out from the floor in front of him rose two Shadows. At first he just stared at the dog-like black creatures with beady little white eyes for a few seconds, but when they started running at him he had the right idea by turning and running away.

"Now no one will interrupt us," Tien said, and his grin grew even wider. _All I had to do was will him to go away and those creatures obeyed. I am stronger than ever!_ Tien rose up his fists and he charged at Luffy, right as the pirate shot forward to attack him.

"Gum Gum Jet Gattling Gun!" Luffy screamed. He had blood dripping down the corners of his mouth and his body was in agony, but he pushed through and swung his fists forward faster than he ever had. Tien punched his arms in the same way, making it look like he had a lot more than he really did. Fists of red and black blended together as it became a blur in between the two fighters.

A fist would get pushed away by the back of Tien's arm as he punched it forward, and that fist would just barely miss as Luffy inched his body out of the way, while throwing another fist forward that Tien could not avoid, but barely flinched from being hit from. Luffy did not notice since he was too busy pounding away at Tien while the man hit him with fists that made his body scream in pain, but Tien's arms were very gradually getting blacker. Two of the black lines swirling around his elbows on top and below it merged together, while a thick swirl on his right wrist started seeping up the top of his already tanner-than-usual hand. Every time Luffy landed a hit on Tien, the blackness seemed to spread out a little more, not that the martial artist was worried.

Tien could see the black lines spreading, but it did not bother him. _I have full control! The darkness is under my control, and I understand what I need to do to keep it that way. I will not let it take over me!_ He could feel the darkness getting stronger and he could tell what it was trying to do, but he only smirked thinking about it, as he knew, or rather _believed_, that he was far too powerful to be taken control of.

Finally one of Luffy's Gattling Gun punches hit Tien square-on in the middle of the face and the man lost focus for a second. That was all the time Luffy needed to follow up with a dozen other powerful punches into his body. Luffy had already been throwing those punches for a while though and his Gear Second was about to run out. He knew it was time, and he roared as he swung both fists forward as hard as he could into Tien's chest.

Goku, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all staring in awe. They thought Luffy was on the ropes which is why they ran over in the first place, but it turned out their rubber friend did not need the help they thought he did. Tien got lifted off the ground and thrown all the way back to them, and Sora and Goku almost did not back away quick enough for Tien to go flying between them and crash into the side of the stage.

Most people watching the fight had run away when things started to get dangerous, but there were groups of several people hiding off to the sides. Two people, Krillin and Bulma, started cheering as the stage cracked and pieces of it went flying up in the air. Luffy's body faded out of Gear Second and though the pirate tried to remain standing he failed and collapsed forward. He landed flat on his stomach with his face pointed out to the side, panting wheezing breaths that his friends could hear all around.

"Luffy!" Nami and Usopp called out. They started running towards their captain, while Bulma and Krillin jogged over to blue-haired Launch, Oolong, and Turtle who were at the front of a larger group of spectators who were wondering if it was safe to come out yet. The two of them froze when they were right in front of the group as every single person in front of them turned blue in the face. Usopp and Nami froze a few feet away from their captain and they slowly turned towards the stage after hearing someone scream out in fear.

Sora looked around the area he was in and his eyes widened in panic. "Donald, Goofy, get these people out of here," he told his two friends who were also looking very nervous at the moment. They looked at the young teen and then looked around to see five or six moaning people and a few unconscious ones around the area Luffy slammed into the ground.

"Got it!' Donald exclaimed in his nasally voice.

"Hyuck, we'll take care of this Sora, but you be careful," Goofy said while running over and picking up two people at a time to carry away over his shoulders.

Sora did not have to be told that twice. He rose up his Kingdom Key and gulped at the sight of the man standing up inside the debris of the side of the cracked stage. His arms were sizzling black and he watched as the last bits of even slightly Tien's own skin color faded from them. His legs followed suit and his torso above his waist looked like it would not be far behind. Small, thin lines of tan skin cracked the suit of black on Tien's body. The black line over the top of his head had widened as well and now went down the center of his face as well, right over his third eye, his nose, down over his lips, and to his chin where it then merged with his all black neck. The line was widening to the sides of his face and made black circles around his side eyes. His eyes no longer had red irises in the middles of the whites, as those irises had widened to cover his entire eyes that now glowed bright red.

Next to Sora, Goku was staring at Tien with a deep frown on his face. "I don't know what's gotten into you Tien, but we can't let you hurt anymore people." The boy stood in a fighting stance and cracked his knuckles with a small curl of his fingers.

"Goku," Tien growled, still his own voice, but with a deeper sense of malice in it than ever before. His mouth curled into a twisted snarl and his body trembled. Then, Tien's feet lifted off the floor and he floated up higher, and higher, and he moved back so he was over the top of the stage. "I planned to kill you in our fight in the finals, but I am fine with doing so right now. COME!" He roared the last part, "I will avenge Tao, and I will kill you!" He spotted something and finished in a deep growl, "And no one will interfere."

Krillin yelled out in surprise and stopped charging away from the spectators who now all turned tail and ran away except for Krillin's friends who called out his name. Several large monsters just appeared in front of Krillin, in the shape of black muscular creatures with two arms and two legs, almost like martial artist Heartless. They attacked the small boy who freaked out and jumped backwards, but then glanced behind him and saw how many spectators were still too close, not to mention Bulma and the others. He could not just run away.

While Krillin started battling those Heartless, Usopp took a deep breath and he took a step forward. "Nami, protect Luffy," he said. Nami smiled at Usopp's back and made an affirmative noise while nodding her head once. He gave her a quick look over his shoulder, "I'll be right back."

She looked back into his eyes caringly, "You better."

Usopp charged towards the stage and ran right past Donald and Goofy who were running the other way while carrying wounded civilians. The animal creatures looked at the muscular figure as he ran past them, and then they looked into each other's eyes. Donald and Goofy nodded at each other, and they prepared to put down the people they were carrying and run back to the fight.

Tien floated above the stage with his black arms held out to the sides of him in an all-powerful way. The cocky smirk on his face curved up more on his right side than his left and he tilted his head in a malevolent way. "If you do try to stand in the way of my fight with Goku, I will have no problem destroying you as well," he spoke without really looking at Sora, but when Sora responded he gave the kid a harsh glare.

Sora slashed his Keyblade in front of his body and he called out, "I might not be as strong as you, but as long as I'm fighting with my friends, you'll never beat us!" When Tien turned to the boy after hearing this, his red eyes widened a little. Usopp stood at his back and rose up his sword with both hands, putting his hilt right in front of his waist with the blade pointed up at Tien. Donald and Goofy came running back over and they rose their weapons to stand with Sora.

Goku looked around at them all and he frowned. He wanted to beat Tien in a fair fight, but as he looked up at the monster floating above them, for some reason he no longer felt like he was looking at Tien. "Well then," Tien began, and he pointed his hands down at the fighters beneath him, "feel the fear of death." His fingers glowed and Dodon Rays rained down from the sky.

"Crap! Now what?!" Usopp exclaimed as the red beams fell towards them.

"Everyone get away from the stage!" Donald shouted back over his shoulder.

"I've got this," Sora said. His friends turned his way and watched as Sora's body illuminated and changed his clothes blue. "Wisdom!" He called out, and he pointed his Keyblade up in the air as he did. The end of the Keyblade glowed white, and little white beams shot out of the tip up towards the falling Dodon Rays.

Every falling red ball exploded in a mass explosion of light and heat. People screamed and shielded their eyes as smoke rushed down towards them and they became unable to see anything. When they looked back towards the stage, they saw Sora firing attack after attack up into the smoke cloud where he thought Tien should be. Suddenly something appeared on Sora's left side. He only barely started turning when Goku was now between him and the shape, raising his arms and blocking the kick Tien aimed for Sora's neck.

"Raa!" Usopp yelled, running forward and bringing down his sword towards Tien.

"Wawawa!" Donald rose his wand and a bolt of lightning dropped down on Tien's head. The man jolted and then Usopp smashed the broadsword down on top of Tien's head. Many people gasped as it looked like Usopp just tried to kill him, and then those same people gasped as Usopp's steel sword snapped in the middle.

The top half of the blade went spinning up and up through the air, while Usopp stood there with a stupid look on his face as he stared at the hilt of his blade and the small bit of steel still sticking out of it. Tien snarled and darted his eyes towards Usopp who took a step back, but before he could do anything he had to block Goku's punches and Sora's beams coming from his other sides.

Tien backed away and then pointed his right hand forward, firing a beam of red light at the floor in the middle of his opponents. "Dodge!" Sora yelled. The boy slid across the ground with light shimmering out of his legs. While he was sliding backwards he spotted something out the left side of his eye and watched Krillin get pushed back by the Heartless he was fighting with only his fists. "Krillin!" Sora called out, and he pointed his Keyblade that way. "Fire!" His more powerful magic in Wisdom Form along with the fact that Krillin had already weakened his opponents made the muscular Heartless fighters explode instantly.

Krillin looked over to Sora to call out thanks, but the bald boy stopped and his small black eyes opened wide in surprise. Sora heard Goku shout from behind him, "Sora, look out!" but he did not turn fast enough. The beam of light that hit Sora sent him flying in an explosion much larger than his own body. His blue clothes singed and the boy's face looked like it was in a lot of pain while smoke steamed off of him.

Dark Tien smirked and turned to Goku who watched Sora fly off the stage and then glared back at his opponent. "Stop it!" Goku yelled in rage, and he ran forward faster than ever before in the fight. He charged Tien and commenced a flurry of punches and kicks too fast for Usopp, Donald, and Goofy to follow, but the one Goku was fighting was handling them with little difficulty. Tien started getting pushed back though and the muscular triclops opened his red eyes wider as he felt each of Goku's hits getting stronger than the last. _What is this?! I am the strongest!_ Tien tried blocking to his right but in his anger he missed that the punch coming was a feint and Goku was actually aiming a kick at the left side of his head.

Tien got slammed hard in the left temple and lifted off the stage, flying back to the other side and slamming into the wall separating the waiting area for fighters. The wall collapsed around and on top of him leaving the man under a pile of debris.

"Did you get him?" Usopp wondered aloud, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Donald gulped and Goofy held his shield in front of him with a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. They both glanced off the side of the stage where Sora went flying, but the boy's Drive Form wore off and he was back in his normal clothes, sitting there on his knees with his head bowed to the floor, unable to get up. "Sora!" Donald called out, and rose his wand sending some green light over to Sora.

The Cure magic got Sora back up on his feet and the boy nodded thanks at Donald before jogging over himself. When Sora was just about to reach the stage though, the pile of debris moved and they all looked to the collapsed wall where Tien punched a fist up through some solid cement. His entire fist was black, and as he pulled his body out from beneath the rubble they could see that there were no longer any light, or even tan areas to Tien's skin. His body had become entirely dark, little wisps of black seeping off of him, and his expression was looking more emotionless now than a minute before. It still looked angry, but almost like there was no conviction behind the anger, like he had no reason for that anger and it was more of just an animalistic rage.

"This, doesn't look good," Sora muttered aloud as he walked up between his friends.

Tien rose up both his arms and out from the floor on the sides of the fighters facing him arose a dozen of those muscular Heartless who were fighting Krillin before. The short bald boy himself was running towards the stage but skid to a stop when he saw the squad of powerful monsters appear. Tien's puppets attacked the fighters and none of them could avoid being hit by the overwhelming numbers. Usopp's sword was broken and though not defenseless with just his fists, it was difficult to damage Heartless of this caliber without a weapon. Goku was having a little more luck, and Sora's Keyblade was doing a number on them, but after only twenty seconds of attacks Donald and Goofy had gone down.

Usopp saw a monster swinging for a dazed and sitting Donald, and he dove in front of the fist and tried catching it. Instead, the fist pushed right through Usopp's hands, hit him in the chest, and sent him flying backwards into Donald, where they both rolled into another Heartless that punched them into the floor.

"Guys, get up!" Sora called out. He could see Usopp and Donald not moving, and the other Heartless were all now turning on him and Goku. Krillin ran up to the stage on the other side and was attacking a couple of them on his own, but they couldn't take them all.

"Look up!" Bulma shouted towards the stage and her friends.

Sora, Goku, and Krillin managed to look up between dodging their opponents, and the three boys went wide-eyed at the sight of Tien rising in the air. The man had a glowing dark aura around him, and he started yelling and making the sky shake around him. "I don't like the look of this!" Sora yelled, then had to snap his head down and block a fist coming for him with his Keyblade.

Master Roshi looked back towards the stage, and he saw Tien floating there in the sky with a look of unbridled anger on his face. Roshi frowned and turned to the wall he was standing near that had a hole in it. He hopped through the hole and looked ahead at the small figure with pale white skin floating above a moaning Crane Hermit. "You there, Chiaotzu was it?" Roshi began.

Chiaotzu stopped trying to rouse his master and turned instead to the other old martial arts master at the tournament. "What do you want?" Chiaotzu snapped in an angry tone.

"I want you to stop your friend," Roshi replied to the young boy. Chiaotzu opened his eyes in surprise and he looked over Roshi's head towards the stage where he could see the black form up in the sky.

"Th-That's Tien?" Chiaotzu asked in horror.

"He is going to kill them all," Roshi continued in a serious tone. "I believe you may be the only one who can stop him."

"Why should I?!" The immature boy snapped. "Goku killed Tao, he deserves it!"

"That is your opinion, and though I would like to change it, now is not the time!" Roshi snapped back at the kid who closed his mouth and looked a little more nervous now. "This is not about your quarrel with Goku. This is about Tien. Your friend will not be able to come back from this if he drops much farther. Look at him and tell me, is that the same man you know?" Chiaotzu's eyes turned huge and he snapped his gaze back to the stage where the Heartless all over it were vanishing.

The fighters on the stage looked around confused at why their opponents vanished. They were not all that upset about it, but it did leave a bad feeling in their chests that only increased as the dark fighter up in the air started raising his arms in a way that made them look like they were leaving behind images of themselves that faded after another was made. Then, everyone watching dropped their jaws and just gawked as those two arms stopped moving. They stopped moving because eight other arms came out of each arm and wrapped around them, while dozens of other arms appeared all around Tien's body and locked him up, and four arms sprouted from Tien's neck. Those arms were not as muscular as Tien's, and looked more feminine, and Sora figured it out a few seconds after it started going on.

Sora spun around and looked around off the stage for a second before spotting the woman he was looking for. "Robin!" he called out happily, seeing the woman standing amongst the spectators still remaining with her arms crossed and her palms raised to the sky.

Bulma, Launch, Turtle, and Oolong turned to the woman who a few of them remembered using this against Launch two days before. This time though, Robin followed through with her attack and she clenched those open palms she had facing the sky. "Clutch!" She called out. Her arms all tightened and the ones around Tien's neck tried pulling his neck back, but Tien remained still. Robin started sweating and she smiled a small nervous smile, _It was worth a try, even though I expected as much from someone who could defeat you Luffy-san._ What happened next she thought she was prepared for, but still screamed out in pain from anyway as Tien grabbed two of her extra arms and clenched down so hard he broke them.

All of her extra arms vanished, but the pain stayed with her as she collapsed to her knees whimpering in pain. "Robin," Launch, the nice half with curly blue hair, dropped down next to her new friend and examined Robin's arms to see if they were injured at all.

Sora spun angrily from the woman in pain and glared up at Tien, but his anger was quickly overshadowed by his fear. Tien was floating there with his hands pressed together in front of his forehead. His entire body was shaking and his hands were glowing orange with sparks of lightning shooting out of them. He spread out his palms a little making a triangle-shaped hole between his fingers allowing him to see down to the fighters below. He focused on them, and on Goku in particular, then zoomed back out to encompass the entire stage in his line of sight.

"RaaaaAAAAA!" Tien started shouting, and his entire body was violently shaking in the air.

"That doesn't look good," Goku stated, nervously looking up at Tien's glowing form.

"He's drawing his own life energy into the attack," Master Roshi said in a shocked voice. He turned around once more and spoke seriously, "Is this really the path you choose to follow? To kill at the cost of your own lives? Your own souls?"

Chiaotzu looked at Roshi, then back at the stage, the Roshi, then the stage. The midget saw Tien's attack about to be readied and he made his decision, flying at the stage as fast as he could. "Tien!" Chiaotzu shouted. The tiny boy flew over Nami and Luffy, then over the fighters on the stage so he was between them and his long-time partner, and closest friend. Tien kept shouting even as Chiaotzu floated underneath him, and the small pale-skinned boy in a green Crane school gi had to try hard not to run away in fear. "Tien! Please stop this. Something's come over you!"

"Move out of my way Chiaotzu!" Tien ordered his partner. "This isn't your fight!"

"It isn't yours either," Chiaotzu yelled back. "Your match ended a long time ago. Just wait until tomorrow to kill Goku in the finals!"

"Tomorrow?" Tien muttered. His red eyes flickered and his lips curled up into a menacing smirk, "You think I can wait? When my vengeance is so close at hand?!" Tien's muscles buffed out and his body surrounded in a red and yellow aura that seemed to make the entire sky above him the same color. Dark wisps swirled around inside the light and a bright yellow light formed in the triangle between Tien's fingers. "Now get out of my way!" Tien yelled. He changed his gaze to Goku and the others down there and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Take this! TRI BEAM HAAAAAA!"

"Tien!" Chiaotzu shouted into the blinding light above him. He tried flying backwards but he was not fast enough and the outside of the beam still hit him. Chiaotzu's smoking body went flying to the side while every fighter down on the stage below could only stare in horror at the attack coming towards them. The sky filled with a brilliant yellow light that made it near-impossible for the fighters to see the man behind the beam.

"Ahhh!" Nami screamed and she pulled her head down into her knees. She clenched her eyes shut and hugged her legs close to her body for some sort of extra protection while the entire WMAT arena shook around her. "AHHH!" Her screams got louder as the ground lurched, the concrete beneath her feet actually shifting around. It felt like an earthquake. Other people were screaming and yelling things at each other about running, but the woman with orange hair suddenly remembered who were right beneath that beam. Nami snapped her eyes open in a sudden panic, hoping to see her friends safe and sound away from the arena.

When she opened her eyes though, she had to blink a few times wondering if she was seeing correctly. She stared ahead about twenty feet to the edge of the stage, or at least where the edge of the stage should have been. The stage was gone. The entire square arena had been annihilated, leaving only a gaping square hole down into the planet so far that it was pitch black inside. Nami got up to her feet and she stumbled a few steps forward before falling back down to her knees. Her eyes were full of water and she could barely breathe as she looked at the hole. "Sora," she whispered in a hoarse voice, "Donald, Goofy… Usopp," the last name made her entire body fill with dread and the tears spilled down her face. "Everyone."

_No, they can't be, they couldn't have!_ Nami started snapping her head every which way looking for any sign of them. She spotted Krillin standing in front of Bulma and their other new friends, but the bald boy was not crying out Goku's name. Instead, the boy was looking over Nami's head, and she in turn followed his gaze up into the sky. Nami's jaw dropped and her heart skipped a beat at the sight.

"Whoa," Sora exclaimed. The teenage boy with spiky brown hair leaned left and peeked over the side of the white cloud he was on. "That was a close one, the whole stage is gone. Thanks Smoker!"

Smoker was frowning as he flew in the air with both arms carrying passengers. He was grimacing mainly because of the long-nosed pirate in his right arm who he saved just like the kid and the animals. He did it on pure instinct seeing the monster attacking the stage, but now that he saved the same man who brought up kicking him off the Gummi Ship, a pirate, he frowned at his own actions. Smoker looked up above him into the red eyes of a very angry Tien who glared back at the man who stole his revenge from him. As he looked at Smoker though, he realized there was one person not in his arms and grinned thinking that Son Goku got caught in his attack. Smoker's eyes widened though and Tien felt a presence behind him, making him spin around with a look of astonishment on his face.

Goku had leapt up right before the beam slammed into the stage, and before Smoker could pull him out of the way. He rose so high and so fast that he flew right past Tien who got distracted by his own explosion and Smoker's interference. As Tien turned to him now, Goku was on his descent with a fist pulled back. "HAAA!" Goku yelled and slammed his right fist down into Tien's turning face. The triclops' face got smashed so hard that even covered in darkness it was easy to see the pain on it. Unlike Tien, Goku could not fly, but he hit Tien hard enough to make the man start dropping with him and allowing Goku to get in hit after hit on him as they fell.

Tien was getting hit by very powerful blows over and over again, but the darkness was a powerful ally. He glared at Goku with burning red eyes and the next time the younger boy punched forward, Tien lifted a hand and caught the fist. Goku became surprised, and then the boy's tongue shot out of his mouth and his eyes bulged as Tien pulled his fist towards him and brought a knee up into Goku's stomach. He landed near Nami on the side of the giant hole where the stage used to be, and the woman backed up as Tien smashed Goku down on the ground in front of her.

He lifted up the kid by his head and pulled his fist back far. "Grrr," Tien growled, no longer able to make out words in his current state. The black line on his face spread out to the sides and covered his entire head, making it so there was no longer any part of Tien's body still visible under the black. His right fist emitted an aura of darkness as he prepared to punch it right through a struggling Goku, but before he could, something caught his eye behind Goku and his red eyes went wide.

Nami was on her butt, having fell from sheer terror of being too close to this monster. When she saw where it was looking though, she turned her head a little and looked behind her to see none other than Luffy standing there. Her captain's head was bowed, his black hair a mess with strands covering his eyes, the corners of his lips leaving trails of blood down to his chin, he looked broken, yet somehow, he was standing. "Luf-fy," Nami whispered in a raspy voice.

"Oi," Luffy spoke in a hate-filled voice that gave Nami shivers. "He was your nakama wasn't he?" Nami did not know what Luffy was talking about for a second, until she spotted Chiaotzu lying maybe ten yards to their left. She was surprised she did not notice him before, but he was a very small figure so it was easy to miss him, especially when he looked so different covered in bad burns.

Tien looked over and saw Chiaotzu lying there, and his furious snarl wavered. The curled frown distorted and the man beneath the darkness stared in shock at the boy on the ground. "Chiaotzu?" He muttered. Memories of his oldest, and only friend flooded into Tien's mind.

Luffy did not care about any of that though, and the pirate captain continued to see Tien as only one thing, his enemy. Smoker landed beside him and the four he picked up were put down so they could all get back into fighting stances around Luffy. "Luffy," Sora whispered at the sight of Luffy's blood-soaked face. He would use his cure magic on the pirate, but he had a feeling he might still need some in a second.

Tien's eyes darted from Chiaotzu to Goku and back again, but the boy in his hand was not going to just sit there and wait. Goku chopped up with both arms and knocked Tien's arm away from him when he felt the older man loosen his grip a little. As he fell to the ground, he spun and slammed a kick into Tien's side. Tien kicked at him but Goku bounced off the floor and avoided it by inches. Tien took a step to follow Goku, but again his head turned and he looked over at Chiaotzu. Tien grabbed the side of his head and rubbed it while continuing to snarl.

Sora saw where the frustrated man was looking, and the boy holding a Keyblade had a great idea. "He's not fully controlled by the darkness yet!" Sora shouted. "Tien! Snap out of it!" Sora charged the person in front of him who looked at him and started growling, but Sora shouted out, "Chiaotzu!" and Tien hesitated long enough for Sora to start a combo of Keyblade swipes on him. "He's your friend right?" Sora shouted while continuing to attack Tien.

A kick slammed Sora backwards, tumbling over and over until he managed to flip himself and skid back on his feet a few more yards to a stop. When Sora got thrown back, Luffy flew into action. The pirate had pumped his legs while Sora charged Tien, and in Gear Second he flew at Tien and slammed as powerful attacks as he could muster into the man. "Gum Gum, JET GATTLING GUN!" He pushed his body forward and punched so hard forward with so many different punches that Tien got lifted off the ground and over the hole behind him where he continued to get pushed back.

"RRAAAHHH!" Tien roared in pain, and from something else. _What's going on?! I'm losing! WHO CARES?! CHIAOTZU! I hurt Chiaotzu! KILL! This power is evil, I need to get rid of it!_ Tien roared again in agony and he lifted both hands to his head while Luffy collapsed to the ground once more, the steam leaving his body and his consciousness fading. Without the constant attacks on his body though, the darkness worked only on his mind and it was getting harder for Tien to fight it himself.

"Luffy!" Usopp called out and ran up to his captain. He looked above the giant hole towards where Tien was yelling and grabbing at his head in the sky. "We need to stop him now!" Usopp called out. He thought about his broken sword and knew there was nothing he could do from down here, but a shadow passed over his head and he looked up in surprise to see a boy in full red clothing soaring through the air at Tien.

"Snap out of it already!" Sora yelled, swinging two Keyblades into Tien's left and right sides. He slashed back the other ways and then came down hard on the man's head while flipping himself. Pieces of black coating were coming off with every attack and Tien's skin could start to be seen beneath it. Slashes of wind flew off of Sora's Keyblades in every direction as he attacked, and when he started falling, Tien tried punching him, but he backflipped off of the air itself and landed on the left side of the old stage. Right as he landed, he jumped back up in the air and pulled both Keyblades as far back as he could, "Take THIS!"

Tien's red eyes flared and he punched towards Sora at the same moment the boy swung both Keyblades forward. Everyone watching squinted as the sky became filled with a bright light even brighter than the one from Tien's attack earlier. This one however, felt a lot less threatening, warmer. It was a pure white light, and when it started to fade everyone could see Sora still in his Valor Form passing Tien with both of his Keyblades extended out to the sides. He passed Tien who was shirtless, showing his torso was back to being pale just like the rest of his body. What was in front of Sora though, had most people gasping.

The black coating of darkness that Sora pulled apart piece by piece was swirling around in the air in front of the boy who started to fall down to the edge of the hole. He looked up as did everyone else and they all watched as the swirls started to morph and formed into a figure they all recognized. Gurgle was trying to reform in the air, but pieces of darkness kept swirling off of him and he looked like he was really falling apart. Sora lit up bright and his clothes turned back to normal, but he still lifted that one Keyblade in his hands determinedly and jumped up at Gurgle. "I've had enough of you!"

Sora smashed his Keyblade into Gurgle and the creature exploded into a cloud of darkness that quickly faded out of existence leaving a strange sight to behold. A red heart shimmered up in the air where Gurgle just was for a second before fading away. Sora landed down on the side of the stage again, but his feet were partially on the edge and he wobbled there flailing his arms around for a few seconds, before promptly falling back into the bottomless hole.

* * *

**A/N And the boss of the world is defeated! The tournament takes a dark turn as Tien turns on even his own comrades after throwing Luffy out of the arena. Gurgle turned out to be a Heartless in disguise, Smoker's on the chopping block, Zoro's still lurking and being evil, and the tournament is about to end! This was the last chapter for the DBZ world, but there will be some falling action next chapter before they take off on their next adventure! Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!**


	22. Chapter 22

**BLP 22:**

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy shouted, running towards the side of the hole and diving towards it. They leaned the top halves of their bodies over and reached down their arms, but they were too late to grab onto Sora.

"I've got him!" a voice shouted behind them. The two animals reaching down and calling out Sora's name heard the voice and turned to see Goku running between them. The boy dove headfirst into the hole and yelled out, "NIMBUS!" For a second nothing happened, then a yellow cloud flew down from the sky and underneath Goku's feet. The martial artist riding a cloud flew down after Sora and reached out a hand to the panicking teen who was wondering just how far this hole went.

"Thanks!" Sora exclaimed and grabbed onto Goku's hand.

Goku pulled Sora up on his cloud and Sora managed to stay on it which made Goku smile. "Hold on," Goku told his friend and Sora grabbed onto fluffy yellow cloud bits to try and do just that. They flew straight up until they left the hole and then both boys jumped down to the side of the stage where all of their friends were.

"Fwew," Donald sighed in relief. The duck noticed Goofy chuckling at him and he crossed his arms, looking away and pretending like he was not just as worried as he was.

"You guys were pretty amazing," Bulma began as she ran over with their other new friends. "You sure gave that Tien a- a-" Bulma's words caught in her throat and everyone turned towards the stage to see Tien still floating there. The man was no longer covered in darkness, but he was still a force to be reckoned with and Bulma felt less like talking about him while he was within earshot.

They all looked at the man to see what he would do, but he just silently flew over to the side of the stage where Chiaotzu was lying and he picked up his friend. "Hey," Sora called over to him. Tien turned and expected some sort of speech or something from the people he just fought while consumed by darkness, but instead Sora just rose his Keyblade and said, "Cure." A green light shimmered around Chiaotzu and then Sora just nodded once at Tien before turning around.

"Goku," Tien stated in a calm voice, much calmer than it had been all day. Goku was still staring at Tien and the man made eye contact with him, now with all three eyes back to normal. "Tomorrow I will beat you in the finals."

"No. I'm going to win, for Yamcha," Goku replied just as confidently as Tien did.

Sora scratched the back of his head as he listened to them. _They're not even considering I might beat Goku._ "Wait," Sora mumbled and looked around at all the damage around them. "How are we even going to finish the tournament? The stage is gone!"

"Oh, yeah," Goku mumbled and looked back at the stage himself. He still wanted to fight Tien one on one, and Sora too, but it did not look like that would be happening for a little while.

"Well," a voice spoke up behind the group and they all turned around. They saw Master Roshi walking towards them in a suit with his hands behind his back. "I will have a talk with the monks and see if we can get that announcer back here. The tournament must have a winner after all." Roshi looked over at Tien who glanced back at the old man and then huffed and walked away.

Luffy moaned as he lay on the floor, "That's right, I lost." He remembered getting smashed off the stage by Tien earlier and he frowned, but there was not much he could do about it and just passed out instead of saying anything else.

While everyone started talking about the crazy match and the weirdo Gurgle, Sora felt something behind him and he turned around. The boy walked over to the stage edge and looked down into the hole once again, and his lips pulled up in a smile at the sight of something shimmering down there. Sora lifted up his right hand and allowed a Keyblade to form there, but when he looked at it he was surprised to see a new Keyblade that he had never seen before. It had a green hilt that curved around in a way that made it look like a dragon's body, a long silver shaft leading up to four prongs at the end, and hanging off the hilt at the bottom was a little keychain like his other Keyblades had. The keychain ended with a little orange ball, one with four stars on it. _**Dragon's Breath.**_The name of his new Keyblade echoed in his mind and Sora smirked before leaping up in the air, doing a fancy flip over the hole, and shooting a beam of light down into the pit.

A loud **click** like the sound of something locking clanked out from the bottom of the hole. Everyone confused as to what Sora was doing got even more confused by that last part as it seemed like something responded to that weird movement he did. "Umm, what was that?" Krillin asked as Sora landed back down with them.

"Our work here is done," Sora replied and let his Keyblade vanish. "We should be on our way, huh?" He looked around at his friends and a few of them looked like they agreed with him, especially Donald.

Luffy on the other hand, "No." They all looked towards the pirate laying on his back who apparently woke up for the conversation. "I want to stay for the end of the tournament."

And just like that, the argument started back up over whether or not they would leave. Once it began though, the crew knew that Luffy was not going to be swayed very easily. Donald went on for a while and occasionally Goofy or Sora would chime in agreeing with him, but Luffy was dead-set on staying until the tournament was over. Usopp was talking to Smoker about how the man saved him from Tien's attack, and he ended it by patting Smoker on the shoulder and thanking him, and by saying that it was fine with him if the Marine kept traveling with them.

Rick the announcer showed back up at some point with Master Roshi, and he told the competitors that the monks were setting up another stage nearby for them to have the final matches on. They decided to still have the second semifinal match that same day, and everyone went over to watch the match between Sora and Goku. Not many spectators showed up, which was good for Sora. It made it not as embarrassing to lose, and he lost, he lost badly.

Most of Sora's friends consoled him over the loss, though Donald went on a rant about how if Sora's match was over then they should leave. Luffy considered it for a minute, then said he wanted to see how the tournament ended even though none of them were in it anymore. So they stayed for another night. Tensions were not as high considering Smoker was not really being scrutinized anymore, but Donald was growing restless and kept quacking on about his mission that Luffy kept telling him they could get back to after the tournament.

The final day of the tournament was pretty exciting. Everyone showed up to watch Goku, even Yamcha who left the hospital to come cheer on his friend. Tien still seemed mad at Goku for killing Mercenary Tao, but Master Roshi had said some things to him after his power trip the day before and those things stuck with him into the fight. He no longer wanted to kill Goku, and by the end of the fight he respected the boy who pushed him to his limits. He wound up destroying the new stage in the battle, and though the match was close, a badly beaten Goku landed out of the ring a few seconds before a just-as-injured Tien did, making Tien the victor.

The travelers were all pretty disappointed by the outcome of the fight, but after it was over Tien came over and apologized to them all for the day before. He said that since he did not really defeat Goku, only managing to not fall out of the ring before the younger boy, that half of his winnings were Goku's. Goku did not want the money, so Tien said that instead he would treat them all to dinner. Even Yamcha after hearing this, decided to try and reconcile with the three-eyed man who crushed his leg.

"Alright!" Donald quacked after enough moaning from all his companions. "But after this meal, we leave for sure!" This time, everyone agreed with the duck and they were all looking forward to having this dinner and getting on their way.

They arrived at the restaurant and everyone walked over to a V.I.P. table set up for their entire group of friends. Bulma, Puar, Oolong, Roshi, Yamcha, Turtle, Launch, Tien, Chiaotzu, Nami, Usopp, Robin, Luffy, Smoker, Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked inside the restaurant talking and laughing about the tournament. Goku walked in the door second to last but right as he got there he froze up. "Wait," he had a look of realization on his face. He turned and said, "I forgot my grandpa's Dragon Ball, and my power pole. I left them both back at the stadium. I'll be right back."

Goku took a step for the door but Krillin was standing there and the bald boy wearing a blue suit and fancy hat held up a hand to stop him. "No, stay here and have fun," Krillin told him with a smile on his face. "I'll go get 'em for you. I know where they're at."

"I should go, I'm the one who forgot them," Goku countered.

"Heh heh heh heh don't be silly," Krillin laughed. He turned and started running down the sidewalk as Goku called thanks out to him. "Be right back," Krillin called out and waved to his friend. Some of the others started walking back outside to see what the hold up was with them and they stared down the sidewalk at Krillin who kept laughing and running away.

Suddenly Goku's smile wiped from his face though and he called out, "Wait, Krillin!"

Krillin came to a stop and looked back at Goku, "What is it?" Every person in the doorway was just staring down the sidewalk at the boy standing there laughing their way. They all had the same wary frowns on their faces despite Krillin's jovial face.

"Something's off," Sora whispered under his breath. Goofy looked next to him at the spiky haired teen who continued, "I, feel weird watching him go."

Goku seemed to have the same look on his face, but he smiled and shouted, "See you soon." The rest of them started laughing as they thought Goku would have more to say.

"Haha, save some for me!" Krillin called out, and then he ran off. Everyone else walked back inside the restaurant, but Goku stopped at the door again. Sora was there with him and they both looked at Krillin's back as the boy kept running farther away from them. They both looked put-off, like something was wrong they just didn't know what it was.

Even after Krillin was out of sight, the two boys kept standing there for a while until their friends called them inside. They waited for Krillin for a few minutes, but with all the delicious food in front of them it was pretty hard not to dig in right away. Luffy was already going all out and the others decided to join him. Donald reminded the pirate captain they had to go after the meal and Luffy mumbled agreement between bites. Luffy was still recovering from his fight with Tien, as after going Gear Second the final time his body completely shut down on him. Even with a lot of Cure magic in him he still was not back up to a hundred percent, but this meal was doing that for him.

One person did not start eating with everyone else though, and Sora turned to the boy on his left, "Not gonna eat, Goku?"

"I'm not hungry. I'll wait for Krillin," Goku replied, staring at the empty seat on his other side.

"He probably got distracted and lost track of time," Bulma assured him from across the table.

While the rest of the table continued eating, Goku's facial expression only got darker. His eyebrows creased and Sora was not the only one noticing. Smoker stared down the table at the boy and Tien narrowed his eyes as well as Goku sat there uncomfortable. "What's wrong with you?" Tien questioned, and then Goku's world shattered.

It was like glass shattered in his mind and everyone around him started staring as Goku's face distorted into confusion and fear. Sora felt a pit in his stomach and he jumped out of his seat, spinning towards the door. Goku was already ahead of him though, knocking down chairs and sprinting as fast as he could out the door and then down the sidewalk outside.

"What's going on?!" Oolong shouted and jumped out of his seat.

"I don't know but let's follow them," Nami suggested and they all started running after the teen boys.

Luffy was running with the main group after the two boys and he didn't know why they pulled him from his meal so abruptly. He was still mid-chew while he ran down the sidewalk and held half a pork chop in his right hand that he was munching on. "Wh-at's up, with them?" He mumbled between bites. He finally swallowed a giant gulp and shoved the rest of his food in his mouth right as they turned back into the main gates of the tournament arena.

"There's shouting coming from over there!" Bulma pointed towards the waiting room for the fighters and they all rushed over.

Sora was standing in the doorway, frozen in place, and Goofy ran up to his friend, "Hyuck, Sora why'd you run off so-"

The talking dog stopped mid-sentence and just stared inside the room like Sora, in shock. Goku was sitting there on his knees with Krillin's upper body in his arms, shaking it over and over again. "Krillin! No no no Krillin I'm here, wake up! Krillin!" Krillin's eyes were open and the boy's mouth was wide, but he was not moving a muscle.

Rick the announcer was lying next to Krillin and he lifted up his head a little bit, "It, it was a monster. It came through the window. It took a little ball and a list of names from the tournament. It got away."

Goku was not listening to any of this though, he just kept shaking his friend's body and shouting his name until he finally stopped. "He's gone," Goku realized and said out loud. There was a trail of blood down the left corner of Krillin's mouth as the boy's head tilted to the side without resistance. "It should have been me," Goku said while tears formed in his eyes.

Bulma stood in the doorway with her hands over her mouth, "Krillin, he's gone," she said in horror.

Sora couldn't believe his eyes. One second Krillin was there, laughing and playing like any other day, and now he was dead. The pirates behind him had similar looks on their faces but Luffy had a different one. He looked mad. Luffy's fists were clenching at his sides and his eyebrows were narrowing as he thought about what Rick said when he leaned up.

Goku snapped up too and he brought his fists up in front of him, "Krillin didn't deserve this!" He picked up his power pole, spun, and shouted, "Bulma, do you have the Dragon Radar?"

She nodded her head yes and started to pull it out while Goku charged towards her. Master Roshi yelled, "Goku stop! Wait! Come back! STOP! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Even the order from his martial arts master could not stop Goku from running out the door though with the Dragon Radar in hand.

"Goku!" Yamcha called after him. Goku was gone though, sprinting away with tears splashing off the sides of his face.

"I'm going too!" Luffy called out and started chasing after Goku.

The pirate took off but froze and spun around after a few steps. "NOOO!" Donald shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone there turned to the duck who marched right up to Luffy and looked up into the pirate's eyes, "We need to leave, now! You said after the meal!"

"They just killed Krillin," Usopp began arguing with the duck.

Luffy was thinking the same thing and wanted to give chase, but another voice shouted this time, "Luffy stop!" They all looked over to Sora who had tears in his eyes but looked at Luffy with such an angry look. "We aren't supposed to meddle. Whatever killed Krillin, it's not our job to stay here and fight it. We have other worlds we need to get to! We have to find your crew, and the King, and Riku and Kairi! And we've spent too much time here already since the ship has been fixed!"

"I'm going," Luffy began.

"Stop!" Sora shouted. "Please Luffy, I'm mad too! Krillin was my friend, but we need to leave right now! There's no time! The Heartless are getting stronger and I want to find my friends before Maleficent destroys everything! We can't just keep doing whatever we want!"

Luffy frowned deeply at this and he looked back down the sidewalk in the direction Goku ran off. He could no longer see the boy but if he started running he figured he could catch up to him. "Luffy, we need to go," Sora said, his voice softer now. "We can't let our feelings stop us from accomplishing our mission. The fate of the worlds is at stake."

"I don't care about any of that-" Luffy began.

"You should," Sora retorted angrily. "I want to save the worlds if I can, and get back my islands. If we have the keys to fixing our world, then I really want to do whatever I can to make it right again. We have to stop the Heartless. We have to beat Maleficent. Come on Luffy, we have to leave."

Luffy started looking around and he saw every one of his friends was staring at him, waiting for him to say something. Master Roshi was inside talking about some note that the monster dropped and how he had seen the symbol on it before, but as much as he wanted to fight this Demon King who Roshi was talking about, Sora's words got to him instead. _Sanji, Chopper, Zoro, I'm coming._ Luffy nodded his head once, and then he looked back into the waiting room where Krillin's body was resting.

They all looked at Krillin one last time, and then they turned and walked away. Bulma saw the group leaving and she ran outside after them, "You guys, where are-" Bulma stopped talking and watched in awe as they got into the Gummi Ship that Donald uncloaked right in the middle of the stadium grounds. She was not there for the repairs so she did not know what the ship was supposed to look like, but she was amazed at it as the travelers got inside.

"Let's take off before she asks any questions," Nami suggested. The rest of the group nodded and started climbing inside the ship, but Nami turned back when she reached the cockpit. "Since Tien won, I guess that means neither of us won the bet." Bulma's face became surprised that Nami remembered that, but the thought of Krillin lying dead in the building behind her stopped Bulma from making any snide remark about it.

"Yeah, guess so," Bulma replied softly. "See you Nami," she said, and Nami nodded back at her in a sad way, for some reason she had the feeling she would not see her blue haired friend again.

The travelers climbed inside the Gummi Ship and no one argued when Donald took the controls. It was dead silence inside the ship. Smoker was okay with it, but he was annoyed he had to put out his cigar before getting inside the ship. He was also thinking about that bald kid's dead face and how he wanted to deal out justice to whoever did that to him, but also how he agreed with Sora that they needed to go. _Tashigi,_ he thought, and ground his teeth angrily wondering where she was now.

Donald pushed forward the thrusters and their ship flew off into the blackness of space. Obstacles appeared and Heartless ships flew at them, but Donald swerved in and out and fired beams at the incoming enemies. Explosions went off around them and still no one spoke. That was not how they wanted to leave the world they had made so many new friends on.

"Is that the next world we're heading to?" Sora asked quietly, though in the silent ship everyone heard him ask Donald the question. He was looking at a map on the ship's central console and pointed at a white dot not far from where Agrabah was on the map. They went pretty far off course when they crashed, but the navigation gummis seemed to know where they were in space.

"Yeah," Donald replied and he turned the ship a little to adjust course towards that planet.

"Do you think the King will be there?" Sora whispered.

"We sure hope so," Goofy responded this time.

"Yeah, me too," Sora said, and then leaned back in his seat.

"You know, we should probably stop by Cid's shop back in Traverse Town," Usopp brought up, trying to lighten up everyone's moods. The group turned to the sharpshooter sitting in the middle back row of the ship and he continued, "I mean, I'm out of potions and we've really gathered quite a lot of Munny on these… on these…" Usopp's bottom lips dropped and everyone stared at him confusedly until they heard Donald's panicked quacking at the sticks.

"What is it?" Nami asked and spun to look out the windshield herself. When she did, her own jaw dropped and she just stared outside with a look of total awe on her face. "No, freaking, way," she said and had to rub her eyes a few times as if she was imagining it.

"Whoa!" Sora leaned forward in his seat and pushed his face close to the window. He wasn't the only one though, and Luffy shot up to the front and pressed his face up against the glass too.

"Do not make us crash again!" Donald yelled at the two on his right side. The duck was sweating pretty badly though and he looked outside almost as shocked as the pirates and others in the ship who actually recognized what they were looking at. "What's going on out there?" Donald muttered like he was seeing something crazy.

"Gawrsh, it's a couple of pirate ships," Goofy pointed out.

"I can see that ya big nincompoop," Donald quacked at him. "But what are- wait," he stopped and stared more closely at the sail of one of them. His eyes went wide and he snapped his head to Luffy who had an enormous smile on his face.

"MERRY!" Luffy, Usopp, and Nami all shouted together at the sight of their ship with the lamb figurehead on it.

"What's your ship doing in space Luffy?" Sora asked, right before realizing that that was a pretty stupid question considering he had been with Luffy since his islands got destroyed.

The pirate captain shook his head in confusion but kept smiling, happy to see her there. His smile started to fade though as they flew after the Going Merry through space. One reason his smile faded was because the other pirate ship flying side by side with it was firing cannons into Merry's side. The second reason, was that there were a lot of people on _his_ ship.

"Who's flying the Merry?" Usopp asked, his own eyes narrowing at the ship he liked to consider his own home, and his nakama.

"Wait a second," Nami whispered, and she leaned closer to the window and looked out towards their ship. "All the people on our ship look like kids," she mumbled in utter confusion. "There are no adults there."

"Fly over to Merry," Luffy ordered the duck in the pilot's chair.

Donald muttered under his breath in annoyance at being told what to do but he did push the sticks forward and dropped the Gummi Ship towards the Going Merry. When they were right over the middle of the deck, someone came running out of the cabin, someone taller than the rest. He had a black pirate's hat on his head and an eyepatch over his right eye. And he was covered head to toe in fur.

Luffy could not wait a single extra second and he threw open the cockpit's glass door. "CHOPPER!" He shouted at the top of his lungs and dove off the ship.

The furry pirate down below him looked up and Heavy Point Chopper's eyes turned into saucers at the sight of the figure dropping towards him with outstretched arms. Chopper's eyes filled with tears and he shouted, "LUFFY!" Then the pirate fell on top of him and they both crashed into the floor.

"Captain! We're still taking heavy fire!" a young boy's voice shouted from not far away.

Luffy and Chopper snapped their heads up and then the rubberman looked down at his doctor, "Captain? You became the captain?"

"Only because you weren't here Luffy," Chopper said quickly and then pulled himself out from under Luffy. He looked to his right over the side of the Merry into space and at the ship on the other side of them. "Captain Hook's got Wendy," Chopper said while Luffy stared at his furry crewmate in shock. "We've got to go save her!"

"That's right!" the Lost Boys around Chopper shouted.

"Wait, Chopper!" Luffy exclaimed and he grabbed the furry doctor by the shoulders. "How long has it been for you?"

"How long?" Chopper questioned and tilted his head to the side. "I don't know, a few weeks? Why?"

Luffy sighed a deep breath of relief at the sound of that, really glad Chopper was not gone for years like some of his crew members. He chuckled and looked up in the air, "You'll see when you see Usopp."

"Usopp's here too?!" Chopper exclaimed with delight, falling back out of his pirate captain's persona.

"Yep, and Nami, and Robin, and Sora," Luffy continued. "Oh and Smokey!"

"Smoker? The Marine Captain is here?!" Chopper exclaimed in panic.

Said Marine Captain slammed down into the deck at Luffy's side and he glared off the side at the ship across from him. "Finally, some pirates I can fight," he said, not hiding at all how much he was going to enjoy this.

"Donald, just put the ship down anywhere!" Sora shouted at the duck who had to keep swerving around things in space while people jumped out of their moving spaceship at their leisure. "I want to go down there and fight with the others!" Sora complained and he watched as Heartless pirates started appearing on the Going Merry and swinging over from Captain Hook's ship. They were wearing gold jewelry and had red bandannas on their heads while swinging cutlasses around.

"I'll put her down over there," Donald said as he spotted a much more open place to land on top of the other pirate ship. He started flying over, but a piece of space debris flew out of nowhere and slammed into their ship. The top of the ship was still open and the rest of the inhabitants either fell out or just barely grabbed onto their seats.

Robin fell out of the ship but she crossed her arms and called out, "Cien Fleur. Wings!" Out from her back sprouted a hundred hands that formed into two large wings that slowed her descent. She flapped her wings a few times and though she had a short time limit, she managed to make it onto the Going Merry. Goofy, Donald, and Sora however, fell spinning through the air on the other side of the gap in space between the ships, landing somewhere on the deck of Captain Hook's ship.

"Usopp grab the controls!" Nami shouted at the long-nosed man who was also dangling from a seat while their Gummi Ship went spinning out.

"I got it!" Usopp exclaimed, and he grabbed the sticks and turned them upright again. He and Nami took deep breaths of relief and Usopp turned the ship to get ready to land.

"I can't wait to see Usopp," Chopper said gleefully as Luffy finished off the last of the Heartless on the Merry's deck. He looked up at the Gummi Ship descending from the sky and he could almost see inside the cockpit. He saw the tops of Nami and Usopp's heads and opened his mouth to shout at them. Luffy did as well to call out at them to look at Chopper, and then both the captain and the doctor dropped their jaws to the floor.

Smashing straight through a wall of space debris, came a massive space whale ten times the size of the pirate ships. "It's Monstro!" One of the Lost Boys shouted in panic and pointed up at the whale. The whale swam forward through space with its mouth open, and the Gummi Ship just above the pirate ships' masts got swallowed up in one bite. Luffy and Chopper's jaws were already on the floor so they couldn't get any lower, but the panic on their faces intensified a lot.

Smoker also panicked as his ride through space got eaten, but the pirates were much more panicked at the sight of their friends getting chomped. Monstro continued to swim off through space perpendicular to the Going Merry, and it swam out of sight in only a few seconds. "What just, happened?" Chopper whispered, his mind finding it hard to comprehend what he just saw.

"Nami, Usopp," Luffy whispered, blinking his eyes a few times in disbelief.

"Don't worry," one of the Lost Boys near them spoke up. They looked over and saw it was a chubby kid with big cheeks talking and the kid continued, "Monstro's stomach is huugggeeee!"

"Yeah, I heard there's actually a guy living in its stomach," another boy chimed in.

Luffy started nodding his head and after a few seconds he smiled, "Alright! They're okay, we'll get them later!"

"Luffy!" Chopper exclaimed, still panicking.

"I said it will be okay, so it's okay," Luffy said with perfect confidence. "Usopp wouldn't be beaten that easily," he said, smiling as he thought about how much stronger his nakama was now. "Now," he punched a fist into his open palm and glared at the enemy pirate ship that kept firing on them. "Let's go kick their asses."

* * *

Sora rubbed his head as he walked around the deck of the ship he landed on. He walked right up to the bow and looked off into the space ahead of him, then looked back and forth around him. Suddenly he felt something and he turned around fast, and heard the voice right after. "I didn't think you'd come, Sora."

"Ah," Sora took in a deep breath at the person he saw on the deck just above his, looking down on him. There was something off though about his appearance. "Wh-Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked the silver haired teen in a yellow tank top.

Riku glared down with his icy teal eyes and said, "Are they that important to you? More important than old friends?" The older teen frowned and continued, "Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking…" he took a step to the left and revealed someone sitting right behind him. "About her," Riku finished.

"Kairi!" Sora stepped forward and shouted at the sight of the girl sitting there behind Riku. Her legs were sprawled to either side, and she sat in a strange position staring down at the floor without moving.

"That's right," Riku called down in a holier-than-thou tone. "While you were off goofing around, I finally found her."

Sora started running forward, but out of nowhere Captain Hook stepped around the corner and held his hook hand out in front of Sora. "Not so fast. No shenanigans aboard my vessel, boy." Mr. Smee walked up next to the captain and five Heartless pirates appeared around them.

"Riku!" Sora shouted up a deck at his friend. "Why are you siding with the Heartless?"

"The Heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear." Riku smirked and two Heartless appeared on either side of him.

"You're stupid!" Sora shouted at his friend. "Sooner or later they're going to swallow your heart!"

"Not a chance," Riku replied confidently. "My heart's too strong. I've picked up a few other tricks as well," he continued, and he held up a palm in front of him, "like this for instance." Out from the floor in front of Sora rose a shadow that looked just like him except entirely black. Sora stumbled backwards at the appearance of the same monster Maleficent attacked him with back in Traverse Town. Just the sight of it had Sora frozen in place, and Riku smirked as he said, "You can go see your friends now."

Sora wondered what that meant for the total of one second before the floorboards beneath his feet opened up and he fell into a trap door. Riku watched as the trap door closed behind Sora. He frowned and kept staring down at it, but he spoke up, "What do you want?"

The person standing behind Riku did not really know what to say. He stood there with a straw hat on his head and his red shirt open down the middle. Luffy leapt across onto the other pirate ship with the others who were off fighting Heartless soldiers right now, but he was here all alone with Riku. "Your friends aren't here, go look somewhere else," Riku said. He turned and walked towards Luffy but called out to Captain Hook far behind him, "Let's get under way."

Riku pushed right past Luffy and then walked into the cabin behind him. Captain Hook walked up the stairs to the higher deck that Riku was on while mumbling under his breath, "Brat can't tell me what to do. This is my ship!"

"This is your ship?" Luffy asked, narrowing his eyes at the captain with a hook hand.

Captain Hook spotted the pirate standing near his cabin, and his eyes locked onto the straw hat. He snapped his head left and looked across the gap in the void where the smaller Going Merry was still sailing side by side his own ship, and he looked at the sail with the same straw hat on it. "Ahh yes, the pirate captain. To think the Keyblade would choose such a strange wielder, it is beyond me. Mr. Smee!" Hook shouted.

"Right here captain!" the pudgy man who was already right behind the taller man in a red coat spoke up.

"Take care of this buffoon for me. I will put the ship on course for Hollow Bastion," he started marching off towards his cabin while Heartless soldiers appeared around him to fight Luffy.

Before Hook could reach his cabin though, Luffy stepped in his way and rose a fist. "You hurt Merry," Luffy said and grabbed his own bicep. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" He pulled back his arm and then threw it forward, "Gum Gum Pistol!"

Hook rose his sword and blocked Luffy's fist with the side of it, but the force was too much and made the captain skid back on the wooden boards. "Smee!" Hook shouted for he looked around though, Mr. Smee and the Heartless soldiers were all locked in combat with Lost Boys jumping onto their ship. The boys were not faring very well, but a pillar of smoke dropped from the sky and started flattening the Heartless monsters.

Two Heartless Pirates lifted up their swords to swing down at the man appearing inside the smoke, but a dozen arms appeared on each of their bodies and bent them backwards until they snapped. Robin walked forward casually with her arms crossed in front of her, destroying the Heartless as fast as they appeared, while Luffy gattling gunned down another few himself. A furry creature dropped down on top of another one that just appeared behind Luffy and he pounded his hooves down on its head.

The four Devil Fruit eaters fighting together on the deck destroyed the Heartless fighters in under a minute. The Lost Boys were looking around amazed at the fighting skills of the pirates and the Marine. Mr. Smee and Captain Hook ran off during the fight with the Heartless, but almost as soon as the Pirate Heartless were defeated, Smee came back, only this time he was in a smaller version of the pirate ship, and it was flying around with engines on it. Flying Pirate Heartless started appearing in the air with him, these ones wearing purple bandannas unlike the others' red ones.

Smee's ship fired cannons down at the fighters down below who all lifted up their arms and got ready for another fight. Luffy jumped up in the air and shouted, "Let's go!"

* * *

"You don't say?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah, it was definitely Kairi," Sora nodded as he spoke. "I finally found her."

"All right! Hyuck, then let's go up and talk to her," Goofy suggested.

"Yeah!" Sora agreed.

"Sounds great," Donald began. "Okay, but first…" Donald lifted his bill and quacked loudly, "How about getting off?!"

"Oh, haha, sorry," Sora fell through the trap door and landed right on top of his friends. He was too excited to get off right away though and told them how he just saw Kairi up on the deck. Sora hopped off the three-person pile and Goofy and Donald got up after him. The three of them were in the very bottom of the ship and they looked around the dark, empty hull for a way out.

While they looked around, Heartless Pirates and Shadows started appearing around them. Donald backed away from three black pirates swinging cutlasses around and he bumped into a barrel behind him. When he turned around though, he jumped up in surprise as eight pink legs broke out of the bottom of the barrel turning it into a Barrel Spider.

"Let's take care of these guys first!" Sora shouted. The three of them started running around the room, bashing and zapping every Heartless that appeared in front of them. The creatures were swarming all over the place so while they attacked them, they were also making their ways over to one of the walls where there was a ladder.

Sora climbed up first and started fighting the next squad of Heartless that appeared at the top of the ladder. He was in a small hallway with doors on either side and at the end of the hall, but he chose the one on his left first. Sora pushed his way inside and Donald and Goofy ran in after him. Donald slammed the door shut behind them right in the face of three charging Heartless. **Thud thud thud.** The creatures slammed into the other side of the doorway but they couldn't break through. A second later though, they heard a click and when Sora tried pushing on the door he found they were locked inside.

The three travelers turned from the door and looked inside the mostly dark room they had entered. "Where are we now?" Sora wondered aloud as he stepped forward.

"Ahem," someone cleared their throat on the right side of the room. The three of them turned and listened as someone asked, "How you doing there? Looking for a way out?" They watched as a figure leapt out from behind some barrels and did a flip in midair. He landed in front of them and they looked him up and down. The figure was a half a foot taller than Sora and wore a green hat with an orange feather sticking out to make him look even taller. He had orange hair that matched his feather and an all green costume that was lighter on his shirt and darker on his pants. At his side there was a small dagger in a sheath and the teenage boy had a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Who are you?" Goofy asked the strange boy.

"I'm the answer to your prayers," the teen said in a cocky tone.

Donald tapped his webbed foot on the floor unimpressed. "Huhh?" Donald quacked as if they did not need any help in the first place.

"Okay then, fine," the ginger boy wearing green replied. "Have it your way."

Sora was not against letting the boy help, but he really didn't see how. "But you're stuck in here too, aren't you?" Sora asked.

"Heh," the older boy scoffed. "No, I'm just waiting for someone."

"Who?" Sora asked, and as soon as he did a yellow light came flying into the room.

The light was a small yellow ball, but inside the light they could see what looked like a little person with wings. She had blond hair in a ponytail and a green dress on. She did a few twirls around Sora and then stopped in front of the person in front of them. "Tinker Bell, what took you so long?" The boy with orange hair asked.

The little fairy did not speak but made head movements and hand motions that her friend understood. "Great job, so you found Wendy?" The teen asked. "Hold on, there was another girl there too?" At the sound of this, Sora's ears perked up and Donald and Goofy shared a look with each other.

The fairy surrounded in a yellow glow folded her arms over her chest and stomped her foot down in the air. "Are you crazy?! There is no way I'm gonna leave Wendy there," the boy told the fairy who supposedly did not want him saving her.

Donald smirked wide and laughed, "Aha! She must be pretty jealous, hahaha!"

Tinker Bell spun around angrily. She flew over to Donald who was hunched over laughing too hard, and she kicked him right up under the bill. His head snapped back and his eyes rolled around in his head for a few seconds while he moaned. The fairy did another twirl around the room and then flew up in the air and out a hole above the door. "Come on Tink, open up the door!" The boy in green called after her.

The fairy did no such thing and Donald continued tapping his foot as if waiting for their new "friend" to admit he was wrong. "Hmm," the teen began and frowned. He pointed a thumb at himself, "I'm Peter Pan."

The boy stuck his hand forward and Sora did the same, "I'm Sora."

Before Sora's hand could touch Pan's, the taller boy pulled his hand back immaturely and turned sideways with a humph. "Okay, we're in this together but only 'til we find Wendy." Peter Pan put his hands on his hips and waited for a reply but Sora just shrugged and smiled at him. They turned and ran to the other side of the room and after looking under some barrels they found a hidden key.

The group ran back over to the door, except for Peter who was mysteriously flying after them. His body was covered in yellow sparkles just like that fairy Tinker Bell was before. Pan kept looking at Sora cautiously, and he asked as they were opening back up the other door, "You don't seem all that surprised I can fly?"

"We've seen if before," Sora replied in a smug tone back to the other teen.

"Hyuck, you mean Tien and Chiaotzu?" Goofy asked his shorter friend.

Sora nodded at him and then looked back at Peter Pan, "So you must be really strong if you can fly, huh?"

"Well I am really strong," Peter Pan agreed. "But that doesn't have anything to do with flying." He would have continued with his thought if a bunch of Heartless wearing pirate clothing and red bandannas did not just appear in the room. One other figure appeared with them that had Sora frowning deeply and his new Dragon's Breath Keyblade appearing in his hands.

The black shadow that Riku created that looked just like Sora came out of the floorboards in front of the group of four. Shadow Sora had a wide glowing smile on his face and Sora ran forward to bash it. When he swung though, the creature leapt up in the air and started flying around. Unlike Pan though, it was surrounded with black and purple dots, not bright sparkles.

The group fought the Heartless together and Peter was not joking when he said he was strong. He flew around slashing at the Heartless with his dagger and then flying back before they could hit him. When only the shadow of Sora remained, Sora swung one more time into the side of it and the creature exploded into a bunch of green orbs that sucked into Sora's body and made him feel a little better as he had been hit a few times during the fight.

The four of them started exploring the different rooms fighting Heartless and Sora's shadow that kept reappearing in every room despite Sora's best efforts to defeat it for good. They returned down to the bottom hold and found another ladder leading into a different hall than they first went into. They walked down the hallway at the top of the staircase with Peter Pan in the lead, and Goofy asked, "So uh, how come can you fly?"

"Anyone can fly, you wanna try?" Pan asked. He turned around and the other three stopped in a line in front of him. Peter Pan put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. A few seconds later, Tinker Bell came flying down through a hole in the ceiling but when she stopped she had her hands on her hips. "Aw, haven't you cooled off yet, Tink?" Pan asked her.

He grabbed her by the tiny wings and although she was small, she was able to lift him off the ground easily. At least it looked that way for a second before they realized Pan was probably flying too to help her out. The two of them flew over the line of Sora, Donald, and Goofy and Pan stated, "Just a little bit of Pixie dust." All the yellow sparkles dropped down on top of them and Pan stopped again, "There, now you can fly."

Donald jumped up in the air and started flapping his feathered arms. The duck lifted one foot, two feet, then fell flat on his stomach. Tinker Bell flew down in front of his face and started laughing her head off while Donald tapped the ground impatiently. It did not seem like it was going to work so Peter Pan just told them to keep going and led the way.

He flew and they ran down the hall together all the way to a door at the end. The four ran inside and looked around, but they didn't see either of the girls they were looking for. Tinker Bell flew in behind them and then flew up to the ceiling and through some netting on the floor that led up to a room upstairs. "See anything Tink?" Peter called up.

"Peter? Peter Pan?" a young woman's voice questioned. A teenage girl in a blue dress ran across the room she was being kept prisoner in and she dropped down to her knees over the net.

Peter flew up so their faces were only a little bit apart. "Wendy," he said in relief, glad to see her okay.

"Please hurry, the pirates are coming," Wendy told him.

"What?!" Peter exclaimed. "I'll be right up there. Just hold on!"

"Wendy?" Sora interrupted and the girl looked down below Peter to the floor where Sora was standing.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Is, is there another girl in there with you?" Sora asked nervously.

Wendy lifted up her head and looked across the net she was leaning over. Sitting right on the other side was a smaller girl with auburn hair. "Oh, why yes," Wendy answered. "But, she seems to be asleep. She hasn't budged an inch!"

"Kairi? Kairi!" Sora called up. A hand fell over the top of the net with its fingers uncurled and Sora reached up his hand towards it. His eyes were full of worry and he did not know what to do, but as he looked at the hands he saw the fingers twitch. His mouth curled into a huge smile, and then it wiped from his face completely as a loud bang sounded above them. Someone started dragging Kairi over the net and they heard Wendy scream up above.

"Wendy!" Pan exclaimed. "Hey, let's get up there!" He looked down at Sora and the boy nodded, agreeing they needed to get up somehow

They could not find a way up in the room they were in so they ran outside, hoping they would be able to find a way up, before it was too late.

* * *

"How do we stop him?!" Chopper exclaimed and pointed his cutlass up over the side of the ship. He pointed it at the battleship flying around too fast for them to hit with long-ranged attacks, but too high in the air for them to hit straight on. Mr. Smee sent more of his Flying Heartless Pirates to dive down and attack the Lost Boys and their friends on the deck of Hook's ship, and it was getting tiring fighting wave after wave of these enemies.

"They're a lot stronger than the ones in Agrabah huh?" Luffy wondered aloud as he Gum Gum Gattling Gunned the flying ones only for them to push right past his fists and claw at him. He had to pull back his arms and form his black and white Keyblade in his hands. He swung it at the Heartless and even with the weapon they still survived multiple combos before exploding.

"Clutch," Robin said. Chopper turned to the woman with long black hair who had her arms crossed in front of her body with her hands pointed up. He followed her gaze up to the battleship above and heard Mr. Smee yell out in pain as a few dozen arms cracked his body backwards and a loud snap rang out.

As soon as Smee was defeated, a pillar of smoke flew up in the air and surrounded the flying ship that had puffs of smoke coming out of its back engines. The ship started coming down as Smoker destroyed its propulsion system, and Luffy bit down on his right thumb as it fell towards him. "Gear Third: Bone Balloon! Giganto-" he pulled back his giant fist that blew up when he puffed air into his bones. He threw his arm forward and yelled, "Pistol!"

His fist smashed the smaller ship apart and the two Heartless flying next to the falling thing were thrown backwards as well. Smoker dropped out of the sky and all the smoke around him reformed making his body. He stood there next to Nico Robin who lowered her arms and Tony Tony Chopper who transformed back into his small point now that the fighting was over. The tiny reindeer in a red hat with a blue medical backpack on his back ran over to one of the Lost Boys near him. "Cubby are you alright?" Chopper asked the pudgy little boy wearing a brown bear costume.

Chopper started taking out his medical supplies but Luffy spoke up first, "It's alright Chopper." The reindeer doctor turned around in confusion, and watched as Luffy lifted up his Keyblade. "Cure!" He called out. A green light shimmered off the weapon and fell down on top of the Lost Boy named Cubby.

"Wow, I feel much better!" the fat kid jumped back on his feet and looked at his arm where he got cut by one of the Heartless. The scratch was gone. "Awesome! Now let's go find Peter and Wendy!"

"Yeah!" The other Lost Boys agreed loudly.

"Hey Luffy," Chopper began and took a step towards his captain. "What's that thing in your hand?"

Luffy looked at the weapon and then back at his crewmate. "It's a Keyblade. Sora and I got them back on his islands."

"I've seen it before," Chopper said.

Smoker and Robin both perked up at this and spun to face the smaller creature with them. The furry little reindeer saw their surprised looks and Luffy tilted his head confusedly, "You sure?"

"Uh huh," Chopper replied and nodded. "I was on Merry when I got sucked into the darkness," he began, and Luffy and the others leaned in closer to listen to the reindeer's story. "We got pulled around through space and I was so scared! Nobody was there except for me. I got on the ship and I couldn't steer her because, well there was no water. Then Monstro attacked, and I thought Merry was going to get eaten!"

Luffy gasped and the Lost Boys who also started listening in to story time did as well. Chopper continued, "But right before Monstro was going to eat me, _he_ appeared! He sent that whale running and used some magic to make the Going Merry able to fly through the void! And he did it all, using one of those Keyblades."

"Who was he?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know," Chopper replied. "He had on this black cloak so I couldn't see what he looked like, but I know he was as tall as me and had these two round ears, like this," Chopper put his hands up over his head to make in the shape of big circles. Luffy looked at the other two behind him but neither Smoker nor Robin knew who he was talking about.

"Black cloak huh?" Smoker muttered. He could think of a certain black cloaked figure, but it definitely was not one as tall as the two foot tall reindeer, and he did not have big round ears.

"He had a Keyblade though?" Luffy wondered out loud. He scratched his chin thinking back on what Leon told them about being so special and such. _Doesn't seem all that impressive now,_ he thought now that there were three people who could use it. He let his Keyblade disappear and then he and the others all turned their gazes to the cabin.

* * *

Inside the cabin, Captain Hook was having a very angry conversation with Riku, though the boy looked like he could care less about the captain's anger. "What?! Wendy's not one of the chosen ones?"

"Maleficent says that Wendy isn't one of the seven," Riku responded. He turned his back to the pirate captain with a hooked hand, "Hoist anchor as soon as possible. Leave all the dead weight behind, including her."

"After all the trouble of capturing her?! And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning anyway?!" Hook shouted.

"Who knows?" Riku said. "As long as it means getting Kairi her heart back, I couldn't care less."

"Hah, you're wasting your time," Hook told him. "The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'll stake me other hand it's lost forever."

"I will find it, no matter-"

Riku was interrupted by the door to the cabin smashing into pieces. He spun around and Hook turned as well, though closer to the doorway. "You again?!" Captain Hook exclaimed at the sight of Luffy standing there with his fist risen and an angry scowl on his face.

"I hear you've been attacking my nakama," Luffy told the man. Chopper just let him in on how he had gotten to know the Lost Boys and their leader over the last few weeks and Luffy also heard Hook had been attacking Chopper almost that entire time. Luffy pulled his fist to his side and grabbed his bicep, "I'm gonna kick your ass."

The door on the other side of the cabin opened up and some Heartless came running into the room. One of them was carrying Wendy over its shoulder and another had Kairi in its arms. Riku turned to the door next to him that the Heartless ran through and he reached down and grabbed Kairi, picking her up gently and holding her in his arms.

He lifted up his head and looked to the other side of the door. Running towards him was Sora, with Peter Pan flying over his head and Donald and Goofy running on either side of him. "Riku wait!" Sora called out.

Riku stepped back into Hook's cabin farther and a black circle of darkness appeared on the floor in front of him. Luffy and the others in the doorway on the other side of the room looked over and opened their eyes wide at the sight of a Shadow Sora jumping up through the dark circle and floating in front of the real version by only a few inches. Instantly, Sora could feel this version was stronger than the ones he had been fighting downstairs, but he tried to ignore it and look past to Riku.

"Riku please, don't go," he told his friend. "We can save Kairi together. You don't need to use the darkness!"

Riku closed his eyes for a second, and then he snapped them open and glared past his Heartless creation and into Sora's eyes. "Only I can save Kairi's heart." A portal of darkness opened up behind him and Riku stepped into it, Kairi still in his arms.

"Riku no!" Sora reached forward, but the Shadow Sora dove at him and swiped its claws at his chest. Sora got hit and knocked backwards, so Donald rose his wand and called down lightning magic. The shadow version of his friend dropped down to the floor and flattened himself against it though. He slid across the ground and popped up behind Donald, swinging its claws down and knocking the duck away.

Goofy ran over and smashed his shield into the creature, but as his shield collided the Heartless split into three and the one he hit turned out not to be the real one as it just fizzled away into dark bubbles. The other two sped over to Goofy's sides and each attacked him, while Peter Pan flew over all of their heads and attacked the Heartless pirates who were holding Wendy hostage.

"Wendy!" a voice shouted on the other side of the room. Peter and Wendy looked over for a second and saw Chopper running into the room behind Luffy who charged at Captain Hook.

"Blast that Riku, leaving without even saying goodbye," the pirate with a handlebar mustache complained. "And after all I did for him, what a brat," he swung his sword down and Luffy leapt backwards to avoid it. He grabbed onto the wall behind him and threw his body far outside the door he just came through, while keeping his hand on the door frame. His arm extended out, and then he snapped himself right back into Hook's quarters where he crashed into the captain and sent them both tumbling across the room into the Shadow Sora clones.

The room was madness for a minute as Heartless appeared all over the place and started fighting the Straw Hats and their comrades. Captain Hook rubbed his head as he leaned against the back wall, and he shook it a few times to regain his composure. "Rrrgh, blasted scallywags," the tall man in a red coat jumped up to his feet and looked around the room. He watched as the Heartless swarmed in from every door, but the enemies he was facing were too much for the Heartless to stop. Robin's arms immobilized and disarmed them, while Luffy, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were taking them all down with powerful attacks.

Hook saw two figures in particular heading farther into the room and he looked at where they were going. Hook's mouth curled up into a large smile and he started running across the room as well. Captain Smoker slammed a fist into a Heartless Pirate's face in front of him and smashed the creature to pieces as his Haki had worked this time. He knew he was getting better at it, but he was not really focused on his improvement at the moment as he was glaring across the room at a pirate he would actually get to stop for once.

Smoker saw where Hook was running and his eyes opened wide. "Oi! Tanuki!" He shouted over at Chopper.

Chopper was already halfway across the cabin and he spun around angrily, "I'm not a tanuki! I'm a reindeer!" Chopper stopped yelling as he saw what Smoker was warning him about, and he jumped in front of the man charging his way. Chopper slammed both his hooves forward, but Hook jumped up over the reindeer and slashed down at his head as he passed by. Chopper felt the blade touching the top of his head and he quickly transformed into his small point, but had to spin around as Hook got behind him.

Luffy and Sora started noticing all the Heartless were running by them and they spun to see where they were going. "Oh no," Sora gasped. "Peter!" He called to his new friend. The Lost Boys shouted his name too and Chopper yelled it out loudest.

Peter Pan was battling two Heartless and standing right behind them was the girl he came to save. He heard his name being shouted though and turned his head, to see Hook mid-jab with his sword. Peter Pan flew up in the air to dodge it but he saw Hook smirk as he dodged and realized Hook did not really care about stabbing him at all. "Wendy!" Pan called out.

"Nobody move!" Captain Hook shouted, and a dozen people in his cabin froze at once.

Smoker and Luffy ground their teeth furiously while Peter and Chopper had worried looks on their faces. Hook stood there behind his Heartless that gathered in a more organized formation now that they were not being attacked. He stood with a hook holding Wendy and his other hand holding a sword to the girl's neck. "Unless you want to see poor Wendy's demise, you will drop your weapons."

Sora shook in place for a few seconds, and then his Keyblade vanished from his hands. Donald and Goofy lowered their weapons too, but Luffy stood there with a fist clenched still. He could see how scared Wendy was, but all he had to do was hit Hook before the man-

"Luffy, stop," Sora called over to the pirate captain who he could tell what he was thinking. "Just calm down for a second."

Luffy looked at Sora and Hook started laughing and saying how Luffy should listen to the 'boy.' Luffy opened his mouth to argue, but Sora's left eye closed real fast while he was looking straight into Luffy's eyes. _Sora has a plan, I think,_ Luffy thought, and he finally lowered his fists down to his sides.

Robin glanced at Sora who she also saw wink at her captain and she decided not to raise her arms, to see what the interesting boy had in mind. Smoker frowned at the pirate's demands but he couldn't put a civilian's life at risk just to get that punch in he so desperately wanted.

"Everyone outside!" Hook demanded, keeping his sword against Wendy's neck and pressing harder into her shoulder with his hook hand so that she noticeably winced.

Hook's enemies could not say anything to stop him from doing this and they all marched back towards the door to the cabin. Sora walked over to the pirates and walked through the door first, and Luffy leaned down to his younger friend, "What are you doing? I could have taken him."

"Just wait, Hook is going to help me," Sora told the pirate.

Before Luffy could ask what that meant, Hook shouted, "Keep yer traps shut! Now all of ye' get to the main deck." Hook marched to the door of his cabin and grinned down at the group in front of him. They kept glaring back over their shoulders at him but he sent his Heartless to lead them down the stairs to the wooden deck below. Hook grinned as they walked away and he turned to one of the Heartless next to him, "Set a course for Neverland. No point in heading to Hollow Bastion now with that brat gone." The Heartless Pirate nodded its head and then ran off to change the ship's course.

"Hook!" Sora called up to the man at the top of the stairs. They were all gathered down on the main deck now with Heartless Pirates on all sides of them. The creepy figures wearing red bandannas over the tops of their heads and holding up black swords bounced from one foot to the other showing how nimble they were. More of them kept showing up but Sora ignored them to yell at the man at the top of the steps, "You said Riku left, where did he go?!"

"To the Ruins of Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent resides," Hook replied in a dark tone. His voice took a more cheerful attitude as he continued, "But, you won't be going there." He started walking down the stairs and removed the sword from in front of Wendy's neck, but he kept his hook hand around her with the point aimed at her throat. "Unless you plan to leave your little friend behind?"

The man in a red hat who had a mustache pointing out to either side laughed at Sora's scared look while he moved his hook hand closer to Wendy's neck. "What do you want?" Sora asked, his head pointed down.

Hook laughed and leaned towards the group, "Give me the Keyblade and I'll spare your lives! Be glad I'm merciful, unlike the Heartless." Everyone looked around at the Heartless who were barely being kept at bay, ready to attack Hook at any moment. "So what will it be?" Hook called out. "The Keyblade, or the plank?!"

Sora turned his head and looked at the side of the ship where the plank was hovering over nothing but empty space. They were on the opposite side of the ship as the Going Merry and they were completely surrounded. Hook was far enough away that Luffy did not even know if he could hit the man before Hook would kill Wendy, making him more nervous now than before when they were in the cramped cabin.

Sora started walking, surprising everyone the direction he was going. "Sora!" Luffy shouted as the boy hopped up on top of the wooden plank. Some Heartless followed after him and pointed their swords at his back to prevent him from coming back.

"A foolish choice!" Hook shouted down to the boy. "Go ahead, jump! I can always get the Keyblade from the other Keybearer," he turned his attention to Luffy who snarled up at him, and then they both looked back at the plank as Sora walked further to the edge of it.

"Sora-san," Robin began hesitantly.

"Hey kid," Smoker started.

Sora looked back at everyone and kept walking backwards until his feet were halfway off the plank. He stared back at them all with their worried looks and confused expressions, and he smiled at them. _**Fly, Sora! Just believe, and you can do it! **_Peter Pan's voice came into his mind as if the boy was right in front of him speaking out loud. Sora closed his eyes, and then he jumped backwards off the plank.

"Sora!" Luffy shouted and reached out for his friend.

Everyone ran to the edge of the ship, including a stunned Hook who was surprised the boy actually jumped without having to be pushed. Sora fell about ten feet, and then right when he reached the bottom of the ship's hull, his body surrounded in yellow sparkles and he shot back up in the air. He flew up head-first and then flew horizontally back along the ship's edge.

"He's flying," Robin said in amazement.

"How did he-" Smoker began in shock, then spotted something in the corner of his eye and spun around.

"Got you!" Peter exclaimed.

Hook was so shocked by Sora's flight that he loosened his grip on Wendy, and in that moment everyone else was looking off the edge of the ship, Peter Pan flew off the ground and snagged her right from his arms. "Peter!" Wendy gasped out as the boy held her bridal style and flew up in the air with her.

"Thank goodness you're okay," he told the girl. He flew the two of them back towards the stern of the ship and landed, right as Sora landed down next to him.

Sora turned to the boy in all green next to him, "Thanks Peter."

"Hey, don't mention it. You didn't think I'd leave Wendy and you behind, did you?" Peter replied with a smile.

"Wendy!" Chopper and the Lost Boys shouted seeing that the girl was okay. They ran over without worrying about any hostages, while three others just turned towards an angry Captain Hook.

"I'm ready to kick this guy's ass now," Luffy growled.

"Not if I have something to say about it," Smoker snarled, going to be the first one to do that.

"Cien Fleur," Robin called out.

The men on either side of Robin looked in at the black haired woman. Robin had her arms crossed in front of her and four arms sprouted out of every one of the Heartless's shoulders and necks, while twenty to thirty arms emerged from Hook's body. Hook started panicking and trying to move but his entire body was restricted. "Clutch!" Robin yelled.

"Eeeyayaya!" Hook screamed as Robin's arms snapped his fingers, arms, legs, and finally brought his neck back and a loud crack came out as she even bent his body backwards too. Hook wheezed and collapsed to the floor while the Heartless all over his ship were disappearing into bubbles. Robin kept her arms crossed and the man who collapsed was grabbed by arms sprouting out of the ground now. They made a line to the edge of the ship and started passing Hook's moaning body towards the railing, then lifted him up to the ledge, and tossed him promptly off the ship and into the void.

Every person on the ship just gawked with a dropped jaw as Hook's screaming voice faded into the night. "I despise vile men," Robin said, finally lowering her arms and returning a smile to her face that had a dark expression on it for a few moments there.

"Aww Robin, I wanted to fight him," Luffy complained.

Smoker suddenly found he was reminding himself that his body was made of smoke. He frowned as he realized why he would be thinking that and shook his head around a few times, telling himself that he was not scared of Nico Robin, though she did unnerve him. He thought back to her actions in Agrabah and now to these ones, _though Hook was a pirate,_ he added, trying to keep an open mind about these pirates so as not to make another mistake like on the last world.

"Well," Peter began once he got over the brutal crushing of their enemy. He spun to the Lost Boys and threw his hands up in the air, "The ship is ours boys! Plunder away and let's get back to the Merry!"

"Aye aye!" the boys all dressed in animal costumes shouted and saluted at their leader.

Luffy turned and stared at Peter Pan harshly for a second. He did not meet the boy downstairs and fight a bunch of Heartless with him, so he really only just met Pan a few minutes ago. Having this strange person say to plunder and bring goods back to _his_ ship, felt strange and unpleasant to him. Chopper saw Luffy's gaze and he ran up in front of his captain. "Luffy, Peter and the boys are all really good people. They helped me sail the Merry after Wendy when Hook kidnapped her!"

"Hmm," Luffy hummed. He watched the flying teen zip around and saw him start talking to Sora who laughed and then jumped up in the air and flew away with Pan. He thought about how Peter saved Wendy too and he smiled, agreeing that he was probably a good guy. "Hey!" Luffy called out and started running after Sora and Peter, "how are you flying Sora?! I want to fly too!"

"Peter!" a voice shouted from inside the ship.

Cubby and the other Lost Boys ran outside and it was the tallest one in a fox costume, Slighty, who called out, "The ship's course has been changed and the steering mechanism is all busted up!"

Peter flew up to his second-in-command, and he flew inside to Hook's cabin. The other Lost Boys were backing away from a couple of stray Heartless who were still on the ship. Sora came flying in after him and the two of them battled the creatures, destroying them in only a few seconds.

As Sora was finishing up his last combo though, Luffy finally caught up and looked inside the cabin. Luffy's eyes grew and he shouted, "Sora! Behind you!"

Sora started turning around and shock filled his expression as out of the ground appeared the Shadow that Riku left behind. The version of Sora was less black than before, the distinctions of his clothing more visible and even a lighter shade. His face was not completely black and had more of Sora's characteristics, but his mouth and eyes were still glowing white.

Sora tried to raise his Keyblade, but the Shadow Sora slashed forward first and knocked him back across the room. He slammed into Hook's table and knocked the thing backwards while doing a flip over it. Donald and Goofy came running into the room and they called out Sora's name, but he was sitting on the floor with a dazed expression on his face.

"Fire!" Luffy yelled as the Shadow Sora descended on Sora. The fireball flew out of his Keyblade, smashed into the Heartless, and then it kept running forward and slammed into Sora anyway. The boy yelled out in pain and Luffy's eyes went wide.

"Wawawa!" Donald shouted and rose up his wand. A few lightning bolts came down and this time the Shadow actually took some damage, making it turn and go after Donald who backed up and let Goofy run in front to slam his shield into it.

Luffy frowned but he turned and shouted, "Cure!" After the green light shimmered out of his Keyblade and went over to Sora, he let his Keyblade vanish and went after Shadow Sora with his fists.

Peter Pan flew down and slashed at the creature with his knife, but Shadow Sora split apart into three versions and two of them knocked back Peter and Goofy. Another one sank down into the floor and slid across the wooden planks so that it reappeared behind Donald who was only mid-turn when it clawed him in the back. Immediately following, a rubber fist slammed into the Heartless and made it explode into black bubbles, but it turned out to not be the real body and the other two sank down into the floor and started sliding around.

Sora got cured by Luffy's Keyblade and he jumped back up to his feet. He pulled out his own Keyblade and used Cure on himself to make himself feel even stronger. It used up a lot of magic so after he used it he charged at the Shadow version of himself to attack from up close. "Guess we should have finished you earlier!" Sora shouted. He brought down his Keyblade and his Shadow version blocked then swung back itself. Sora rose his Keyblade to block and when he parried he knocked back his opponent with the force of the block, and then shot off towards him right away and slashed up, then down, and to the right, then finished with a hard uppercut diagonally to the left.

His shadow self got thrown backwards and Sora chased after it to keep taking its health down. Luffy ran forward as well and he jumped up over the Heartless monster, slamming both of his feet down and yelling, "Gum Gum Spear!" His feet slammed down into the floorboards as Sora's Shadow sank into the floor and started sliding around as a black circle just like the little dog Shadows sometimes do.

"I don't get it," Luffy grumbled as he landed down next to Sora.

"What is it?" the boy asked his older friend.

"How come my magic isn't as strong as yours?" Luffy asked.

"Well," Sora began. "Next time we head back to Traverse Town, I'll bring you to this wizard named Merlin." Luffy looked at Sora funny for a second and Sora added in a sheepish tone, "We kinda met him when you were still passed out after the Deep Jungle, and he helped me and Donald with our magic, and taught me how to use Drive Form."

"So that's how!" Luffy exclaimed, having wondered how Sora learned that new magic back in Traverse Town.

"Yeah," Sora admitted. _Aw man, the one thing I had over Luffy and now he's going to get it too._

"Huh, well then after this let's go back! I want to get some new clothes too!" Luffy said excitedly, and Sora sweatdropped as the cool appearance of Valor and Wisdom Forms really wasn't the best part of the transformations. _Though it's definitely a plus,_ Sora thought with a grin. He and Luffy prepared themselves as Sora's Shadow came charging back at them, and Donald and Goofy started fighting along with them.

"Everyone get back on the Merry!"

"Quickly!"

"Straw Hat get out here!" Smoker's voice sounded a little, panicked? Luffy and Sora glanced at each other with wide eyes and then looked towards the door, where Shadow Sora suddenly popped out of the ground and made his two clones reappear.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Donald quacked nervously.

"I'll go check it out," Pan said, and he flew up in the air and swerved around Shadow Sora's attacks to make it out of the cabin.

Meanwhile, Sora and Luffy had enough playing around. Sora's body lit up bright and when it vanished he was wearing all blue clothes. Luffy pushed down on his knees once and his legs pumped, making his entire body turn red and start steaming. Wisdom Form and Gear Second sent Sora and Luffy flying at their opponent much faster than it could dodge.

"Gum Gum- Keyblade Gattling Gun!" Luffy swung his fists forward over and over again with his Keyblade out in his right. The damage he was doing intensified and Sora fired dozens of beams of white light after Luffy's fists. Fists and beams slammed Shadow Sora back and back until he was out the door of the cabin and back against the railing that he smashed straight through. He flew backwards in the air and his glowing smile curled down into a frown, right before his body opened up and dissolved into a sludge of black ooze that became more gaseous every second until it was gone.

"We did it!" Sora yelled and pumped a fist up in the air. He was still in Wisdom Form but since the enemies were all gone he decided he could go back to normal. Just like that, his Drive Form vanished and he smiled at the fact that he could revert easily and hopefully save some of his Drive Gauge for later if he so needed it.

"LUFFY!"

Chopper's voice carried across the void and back to Captain Hook's ship. Luffy and the others celebrating inside the cabin looked outside and gulped at the sound of Chopper's scared tone. They did not gulp because Chopper sounded scared, but because he sounded scared _for them._ They sprinted outside right as Peter Pan was flying back towards the cabin door, and the boy in a green hat and clothes exclaimed, "We need to get back to the Merry now!"

"What's happening?" Sora asked in a hurry.

"Gawrsh, doesn't that world look like it's getting closer awfully fast?" Goofy asked. Donald, Luffy, and Sora all turned right to where Goofy was leaning off the ship and looking forward. The three of them ran to the edge and looked off for themselves, making all of their eyes turn huge.

"Come on!" Pan shouted back at them, and they turned to see the boy already flying back across Hook's ship to the other side where the Merry was flying down, but easing up on the steepness of its descent.

"Run!" Sora yelled. He started sprinting the other way, and he jumped up, going back into a glide that flew him up in the air with little yellow sparkles emitting around his body.

"No fair!" Donald yelled up at Sora.

"You can do it too!" Sora yelled back as he flew farther past his friends. "Just believe!"

He kept flying and Donald and Goofy both closed their eyes. The two animal creatures jumped up in the air after a second and Luffy dropped his jaw as they went flying over his head.

"If they can do it," he muttered to himself. Luffy stopped running and he took a deep breath, then jumped up in the air and shouted, "Fly!" He stopped at the top of his arc and his eyes opened wide as for a second he thought he was flying. Then gravity took over and he fell back to the deck of the ship right on his stomach. "Aww, what gives?"

"Why couldn't Luffy fly?" Goofy asked as he looked back at the pirate. He himself was just about to fly off the side of Hook's ship and the others were all just in front of him.

Pan looked back, "Tink never sprinkled pixie dust on him like she did for you three, so-" Pan stopped as he spotted something out the corner of his eyes.

"Luffy hurry up!" Chopper yelled at his captain who was getting back up to his feet.

"It's too late Chopper, we have to pull up!" Slighty called out of the Merry's cabin. He and the other Lost Boys all piled on top of the rudder and pulled it together, while Wendy held onto the wall tight. Robin and Smoker looked off the side of the Merry for Luffy, calling out Luffy's name, or "Straw Hat." Luffy ran towards them and the four flying figures in front of him landed on the edge of the Merry only to look back and shout that he had to hurry up.

Luffy threw his arms forward and grabbed onto the railing, "Gum Gum-" The ship he was on jolted as it crashed down into the water. It skid across the waves for a few seconds, bouncing over and over, but the nose was dipped too far down and the back of the ship came pulling above the rest of it. Luffy's extended arms snapped him forward but he didn't yell out 'Rocket,' as he was too busy screaming while Captain Hook's ship did cartwheels over the ocean.

The Going Merry pulled up hard and only touched down on the water once it was horizontal, but everyone on the ship was looking out in horror as Hook's ship cartwheeled over and over again on the waves. Sails ripped and the hull shattered. The cabin broke apart and pieces of wood went flying everywhere as the mast snapped. And through it all, they saw Luffy's body go flying through the air, and crash down into the water.

"LUFFY!"

* * *

**A/N No Luffy! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the chapter! The WMAT ends pretty quickly as there was no real point in writing out Goku and Tien's fight, and writing out Sora losing to Goku wouldn't have added much either. Mentioning Donald yelling at them all the time hasn't been for nothing as finally they decide to leave the DBZ world, only to run into Riku on his way to Hollow Bastion with Kairi. In the game this happened much later, so things may not go as smoothly now that so much time has been wasted by the tourney... Anyway, next chapter we get the end of Neverland which they just landed on, and then the crew will set off for a new world! "Aren't we forgetting something?" ... "Usopp! Nami!" XD**


	23. Chapter 23

**BLP 23:**

_Damn it, I'm drowning again!_ Luffy fell farther down the water with his eyes open, his arms flailing around him. His cheeks puffed out as he tried to hold whatever air he had left inside his lungs, even though he gasped upon hitting the water and barely had any to begin with.

Planks of wood, shreds of cloth from the sail, broken barrels, ladders, tables, all floated down around Luffy into the depths of the sea. The entire ship had pulled apart on the crash landing into this world's ocean without anyone piloting it. Luffy's arms stopped waving around as much and his vision was starting to get blurry. _I found Chopper though, only Sanji and Zoro left. Zoro, what's gotten into you? Everyone keeps saying you're a bad guy, but I don't want to believe it._

Luffy's vision was getting blurrier and his mouth opened up, bubbles floating out and water filling in. _This stinks,_ he thought, while his body started shutting down. Something splashed into the water up above him, but everything was too blurry now for him to make out what it was. The form that smashed into the water came flying down fast with his hands in front of his head in a dive. He pushed those arms out to his sides and pushed the water behind him to send himself propelling farther down into the water faster.

_Chopper, Robin, and Smoker can't swim, and Nami and Usopp aren't here. I have to get him fast!_ Sora swam down past pieces of debris and almost got caught in a sinking net that wrapped around his leg for a second. He kicked it off and kept going down, heading towards the pirate down below who kept sinking farther and farther into the water. He could see Luffy's eyes, partially open but not focused on anything, and Sora found himself speeding up even faster. He kicked his legs downwards and reached out for the pirate, grabbing him around the arms and then starting to swim up.

Sora froze though as he was starting to head up. Something caught the corner of his eye and he saw it sinking with everything else. _Oh no!_ His eyes darted from it back to Luffy and back again. The pirate's mouth was still open and a few bubbles were still coming up out of his mouth, but he was not looking good. Sora clenched his eyes closed and puffed his mouth wide as he was already running out of breath. _I'll come back!_ He started kicking up harder and harder, moving as fast as he could to get up to the surface. He could see the light up above him, the rippling surface and the driftwood that was buoyant enough to float on top of the waves.

He kicked and kicked until he splashed up above the surface. The first thing he did was take a huge gasp of air. The second was snap his attention to Luffy who he did not hear take as large of a breath, or a breath at all for that matter. "Luffy, Luffy!" Sora shouted. He pushed up and tried flying out of the water, it taking a little effort but he managed after a few seconds. He shot up in the air and flew to his right where a pirate ship that was not in pieces all over the place was floating. Sora glanced back while he flew away and made sure he knew where he just came out of the water.

"Luffy!" Chopper shouted up as Sora came descending to their ship. He dropped down on the deck and let go of Luffy so the pirate was lying on his back. "What do we do?" Sora exclaimed. "He's not breathing."

Smoker looked over from the mast as everyone else gathered around Luffy. He did not look as worried as the rest of them, but he was watching closely. Chopper pushed by everyone else and yelled, "I need to do CPR. Everyone move back." He started pressing his tiny hooves down on Luffy's rubber chest to try and get the water out.

"You'll save him, right?" Sora asked, getting up off his knees and to his feet.

"Of course," Chopper said without looking up from his patient.

Sora sighed in relief. "Good," he said, and then turned around and jumped back off the ship.

"Sora, where are you going, hyuck?" Goofy called after the boy.

Donald also called out to Sora, and Robin looked up at the boy with a strange gaze, wondering what he could possibly need to fly out into the wreckage for so soon before they even knew that Luffy was okay. Sora dropped from the sky and back into the water where he just got Luffy out of, and as he went under, Luffy's body arched up and gallons of water started spurting out of his mouth like a faucet.

"Psshhhh!" Luffy spat it all out and then rolled over and started coughing onto the deck. "I thought I was gonna drown!"

"We told you to hurry up!" Chopper shouted and bonked his idiot captain on top of the head with his left hoof. The reindeer sighed and gave Luffy a hug, surprising the rubberman who was about to get back up. "Luffy," Chopper said while burying his furry face into his captain's side. "It's so good to see you." Earlier they were in the middle of a battle so he could not say all he wanted to, but now it looked like things had calmed down and Chopper finally relaxed. "I was so scared."

"It was alright," Luffy said and he stood up, breaking the hug with Chopper. "We may have gotten separated, but we've already found most of the crew. We even have Merry now!" Luffy exclaimed and looked up at the sail with a skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat that Usopp painted on there at the start of their journey with her. As he stared at the sail, he was getting a strange feeling and his right hand subconsciously lifted up to the top of his head. He patted down on his wet hair and his eyes widened. He brushed his hand down the back of his head to the point on his back where the hat was sometimes hanging, but nothing was there either. "HAT!" Luffy screamed in panic.

The pirate spun around and ran to the side of the ship to look off it. He stared out towards the debris of Captain Hook's ship littering the ocean near them, but as he looked closer he did not see his hat anywhere.

"Did you lose it in the water?" Chopper asked in panic.

"What's so special about that hat?" Peter Pan asked as he looked up at the sail and remembered the hat Luffy was wearing earlier.

"Shanks gave me that hat!" Luffy exclaimed.

Smoker's eyes opened up wide and he took a step towards Luffy. "Akagami no Shanks, you know him?"

Luffy turned around and nodded before spinning back around and staring out at the water. "I made a promise I would give it back to him one day, once I become a great pirate." Luffy's hands were shaking at his sides and his chest was hurting as he looked out at the water. "It's probably-"

**Splash!** The water's surface broke and a boy with spiky brown hair, miraculously staying in its spikes even while wet, emerged from the ocean. Sora rose up in the air and lifted his right hand up above his head. What was in Sora's hand made Luffy's eyes turn into saucers and his chest stop hurting instantly. Sora flew towards him with his straw hat held out in front of him, water droplets splashing off of it, but looking one hundred percent o-kay!

Sora flew all the way back to Luffy's ship and he dropped down on the other side of the railing, right next to his taller pirate friend. Sora lifted up his right hand and his right arm had a long gash going from the back of his hand, over his wrist, almost to his elbow. Luffy's eyes went wide and Sora scratched the back of his head with his free hand, "It was pretty far down so I had to go straight, kind of bumped into some sharp driftwood…"

Luffy reached out and grabbed his hat, but the whole time he kept staring at Sora who was laughing off getting an injury just to get his hat. Luffy's eyes widened and his mind flashed to a few minutes ago when his eyes were closing underwater and that blurry form was approaching him. He couldn't remember perfectly, but he did recognize the shape of the person coming down to get him, and his spiky hair. He could currently see everyone else on the ship too, and the others were all perfectly dry.

"Do you want me to take a look at your arm?" Chopper offered from behind Sora. "Or, can you-"

"Whoa!" Sora exclaimed and spun around. "Chopper, you're here!" The reindeer sweatdropped as he thought Sora had seen him back on Hook's ship, but Sora was more focused on his friends, and fighting Hook, and then his Shadow self, and then the ship crashing. He somewhat recalled noticing him earlier but kind of thought it was another Lost Boy considering all the kids were around Chopper's height and were wearing furry costumes as well.

"Y-Yeah," Chopper said to Sora.

"It's okay though," Sora told the reindeer who he remembered told him he was a doctor back on Destiny Islands. "I got it-"

"Cure," a voice said behind him.

Sora turned around and saw Luffy holding up the white hilt for his Keyblade. Luffy still had his hat in his hand and he was looking down at it with a big smile on his face. Sora thanked Luffy and the pirate only grinned wider at the thanks, considering he felt he should be the one giving it instead. But Luffy had a better idea, and he snapped his head up and looked Sora in the eyes. "Hey Sora," he said, and Sora started from the sudden serious look Luffy was giving him, even if it was hard to tell for some people considering Luffy was still smiling.

"Yeah?" Sora asked.

"Join my crew," Luffy said.

Sora's blue eyes grew huge and Chopper and Robin both looked at their captain in surprise. Smoker ground his teeth but attempted not to say anything for now. Luffy grinned at the younger boy and awaited his reply, but Sora just stood there staring back at him for a few seconds. _Luffy joked about it before, back in Wonderland, but I thought he was really just talking to Goofy. I didn't take it seriously, but he really wants me to be a pirate with him._ Sora's head bowed and he looked down at the floor at his feet, _But, the way Luffy acts, I, don't think I'm cut out to be a pirate. _

"I'm sorry Luffy," Sora said. He turned and started walking away while Luffy stared after him. Luffy frowned and hummed to himself at Sora's rejection, but he grinned as he realized Sora was stuck on his ship anyway and he could just keep asking away. For now though, Sora looked oddly depressed. He walked right by the others and over to the opposite railing of the Merry, looking out over the ocean on the port side.

Goofy saw Sora's expression and he turned to Donald. In a voice that he considered a whisper, but was actually pretty loud, Goofy went, "Uh, Kairi couldn't wake up, so maybe she's really lost her-"

"Shh," Donald snapped at him, and Goofy gulped and looked up to see Sora sighing while staring off the ship.

Luffy slightly remembered seeing Riku holding Kairi back when he disappeared inside Hook's cabin, and he had wondered why the girl was not just standing up on her own. Smoker heard what the dog said too and his eyes widened. _Lost her- what? Did she lose her heart? Just like Tashigi?_

Peter took a step towards the spiky haired kid. "Sora," he started.

"I still can't believe it," Sora whispered. He lifted up his head and had a big smile on his face, "I really flew. Wait till I tell Kairi. I wonder if she'll believe me. Probably not." Sora was not as worried as the rest of them. He knew it, he saw Kairi twitch her hand, he was sure of it.

"You can bring her to Neverland sometime," Peter suggested. Sora turned and smiled at the redhead and Pan continued, "Then, she can try it herself!"

"If you believe, you can do anything, right?" Sora asked, and the others started smiling over at him. "I'll find Kairi. I know I will." He looked up at the sky, "There's so much I want to tell her- about flying, the pirates, and everything else that's happened."

As Sora was speaking, Tinker Bell came flying down from behind him and she looped over to Peter Pan. Peter looked at the pixie and asked, "What's that Tink? What about the clock tower? You say there's something there?"

"The clock tower?" Wendy Darling began. The young girl in a blue nightgown stepped forward and Pan turned back to her. "I am very sorry Peter, but I must get home. I would like to stay with you and the boys for longer, but I am afraid Neverland is not where I belong. Please, return me to my family."

"Are you sure?" Peter asked.

"Quite sure," the girl said, already having thought it over. Peter looked into her eyes and after a few seconds he nodded, accepting her wishes.

"Wendy no," one of the Lost Boys began.

"We'll miss you," another said, the twin of the one who just spoke.

Cubby sniffled and wiped his eyes so the other boys would not see him cry. "It won't be the same without you Wendy."

"Will we ever see you again?" Slighty asked her.

Wendy got down on a knee in front of all the Lost Boys. She put a hand on the shortest boy's head all the way on the left in the skunk costume, and another hand on Slighty's right shoulder as the tallest Lost Boy stood on the far right of the group. "I will always be with you boys. All you need to do, is look into your hearts and I will be there." She pulled them all in to one big hug and the sniffling boys and told her goodbye.

"Hey Chopper," Peter called over to the reindeer on the opposite side of the deck as him. Chopper stopped talking to Robin and Luffy and turned to look over at Peter. "Can you take the boys back to Neverland? I've gotta go bring Wendy back to London, and check what's going on at the clock tower. I'm guessing you're going to be heading off again soon, but we won't be coming along this time huh?"

"Absolutely not!" Donald exclaimed. The others laughed at Donald's enthusiasm, even Peter Pan.

"Well, I'm off-" Peter began, but as he flew up in the air while grabbing Wendy by the hand, Sora flew up next to him.

"Can we come check out this clock tower?" Sora questioned. The boy had his Keyblade in his hand and now that Hook was defeated he had a feeling they should have found the Keyhole already. _Maybe it's at this clock tower._

"Good idea Sora," Donald said as he flew up as well, realizing what Sora was thinking.

"Wait! I want to come too!" Luffy called up. "Let me fly!"

The group flying in the air looked around at each other and shrugged. "Go for it Tink," Peter told the pixie floating next to him. Tinker Bell flew down and did a swirl around Luffy, covering him in sparkles and making it so he could fly. Luffy closed his eyes and remembered what Sora told him before. _Believe!_ Luffy jumped up in the air, truly believing he could fly. For a second gravity kicked in and he fell back down, but he did not prepare himself for failure, he just kept his eyes closed, and believed. Golden sparkles covered Luffy's body and when he was only a foot from hitting the deck he shot back up in the air and rose to the height of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the others.

"Nice Luffy!" Sora called out, and he high-fived his pirate friend.

* * *

The two groups split off, one heading on the Going Merry to Neverland to drop off the Lost Boys, the others heading to London to bring Wendy home and find out the source of the disturbance at the clock tower. Neither trip took very long, considering Chopper knew how to get to Neverland already and they luckily landed closeby in the ocean in the first place.

The other group made it to the clock tower in the middle of the night. They landed at the top where there was an area to walk around, and Wendy told them that something was wrong with the clocks down below. The tower had clocks on all four sides of it, but one of the clocks did not show the same time as the others. Sora and Luffy went down and _corrected _the clock hands, which was really them just punching and hitting them with their Keyblades until they matched the hands on all the other faces.

Once the clock hands matched up, the entire clock face lit up, and then just above the Roman Numeral III on the right side of the circular clock face, a tiny Keyhole appeared. Sora pointed his Keyblade at it from where he was floating fifty feet away, and a thin beam of white light shot out and into the lock, clicking it shut and making the Keyhole vanish. As the Keyhole vanished, a small object dropped from the clock and Luffy stretched an arm down to grab it. He snapped his arm back and they looked at the new Gummi in his hand in surprise. They finished their work in London by dropping Wendy off at home, and Luffy and Sora said hi to Wendy's younger brothers who Peter Pan already knew. Then, Luffy, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Peter all headed back out to sea to return to the Going Merry.

The group returned to the ship just off the coast of an island that had a large group of people on shore. They looked over and when they saw who they were, Peter Pan looked to the others flying with him and said, "Well, looks like that's it guys. I'll see ya!" The boy in green did a flip in the air and a small ball of yellow sparkling light flew up with him. "Come back sometime!" Peter called back and he gave his friends a wave before flying off to Neverland where the Lost Boys were waiting for him.

The other four lowered down to the deck of the Going Merry and thought they were going to be met with questions about what was wrong with the clock tower. Instead, they landed and the first thing that happened was Donald marched forward and spun around with his hands on his hips. Chopper was hiding behind Robin's legs while poking his head out every few seconds to look nervously at Smoker, but the three of them all looked over as well when Donald started shaking where he stood. "That's it!" The duck shouted. "I have held my beak shut, but I won't anymore!"

Everyone looked over at the duck whose face was redder than usual. "What's up Donald?" Sora asked.

"WAWAWA! What's wrong is that there are too many people jumping between worlds. The world order is getting disrupted!" Donald quacked madly.

"It's just one more person," Sora began, trying to defend Chopper who looked sheepish once the angry duck darted its eyes in his direction. "What's the harm-"

"Just one more person?" Donald quacked loudly. "It's been 'just one more person' on every world we've visited!"

"I'm not leaving my crew behind," Luffy said firmly.

"Well you can't bring anyone else on the Gummi Ship," Donald said, and he put his right foot down for emphasis. "There is not enough room, and we do not have time to go make additions every time you want to bring someone else along."

Luffy frowned at Donald, and Chopper looked back and forth between Luffy and the duck nervously. "That's perfectly fine," Smoker said, and the others all looked to the Marine Captain. "There's no need to take the Gummi Ship at all, is there?" He turned to Chopper and asked.

Chopper's face lit up and he exclaimed, "That's right." He smiled and continued, "Since the Merry Go can travel through space, we can just take her to the next world you need to go to."

"Huh," Sora said and scratched the back of his head. "I was wondering about that, how is your ship able to do that?"

Donald was fuming angrily but at the response Chopper had for Sora, both him and Goofy's eyes popped wide in shock. The two animal creatures looked at each other and Goofy wondered aloud, "Big ears?"

"Magic?" Donald said after him. The two blinked a few times, then spun back to Chopper and ran at him. They charged the little reindeer shouting dozens of questions at once.

"Whoa guys, what's wrong?" Sora asked.

Goofy turned around to Sora, "The person Chopper described sounds like the King."

"When was he here? Which way did he go?" Donald shouted all these questions while shaking the smaller, furrier creature by the shoulders.

"I don't know," Chopper replied nervously to the duck that had not stopped shouting since he got on the ship. "He didn't say much, but he really helped me out by making the Merry able to fly through space. And without him Monstro would have eaten me for sure."

Chopper said it and Luffy blinked a few times like he was trying to remember where he heard the name Monstro before. When it hit him, his jaw dropped and he snapped his head to the sky. "Oh yeah! Usopp and Nami!"

"What about them?" Goofy questioned.

"They got eaten!" Luffy exclaimed. Sora, Goofy, and Donald all opened their eyes wide in shock.

Robin spoke up, "The Gummi Ship got eaten too." She mentioned it mainly to the duck who was complaining about there being too many people and saying that he was going to leave them behind. Donald turned her way and she gave him a small smile showing that now they were the ones with the ability to tell him that he could not come, and she saw a lump in Donald's throat go up and down as he gulped.

"Then that settles it," Sora said and clapped his hands together. "We'll take the Going Merry to the next world. Hopefully we'll run into Monstro on the way too so we can look for Nami and Usopp."

The rest of them seemed to be in agreement, but one man was not as excited. "Without the ship though," Smoker began and the others turned back to the oldest man on the ship. "We have no navigation system." He turned to the duck that looked nervous after he said it, and he questioned him, "Will we be able to find a world without it?"

Donald opened up his bill but Sora spoke up first, "Of course we will." The others looked towards him wondering how he knew that, and Sora said plainly, "We've been traveling through pathways if you haven't noticed. It's almost like most of space is full of in-traversable debris, except for the paths we've been taking."

"Very good of you to notice that Sora-san," Robin mentioned as she herself had forgotten that for a moment. "In that case, we must simply find the start of the path and follow it to where the next world may be."

"I sure hope it's that simple," Donald quacked.

The crew got ready to depart Neverland. They had a plan, they had a goal, and they hoped they would be able to get to their next destination on board the Going Merry. Chopper led Luffy, Sora, and Donald through the ropes of getting the Merry off the water. It was a surprisingly simple system using mainly the rudder of the ship that had some magic spell put on it by the King.

The ship lifted off the water and most of the crew looked off the sides amazed at its flying ability. They were even more amazed as the ship picked up speed and shot up into the sky and out into the dark void of space in only a few seconds. The space looked the same as it always did, but for most of them it was their first times seeing it outside of the Gummi Ship's cockpit. They had a much wider angle to look around off all sides of the Going Merry at huge cubes of yellow and purple, meteors shooting through empty space, and squadrons of Heartless ships looking for someone to fight.

"Does the Merry have any defensive capabilities?" Smoker asked.

"Yeah," Chopper said happily, glad the Marine was not attacking him and instead talking about things to protect them. "We installed some lasers on the front of Merry, right inside her eyes."

"Whaaattt?!" Luffy shouted in amazement, his eyes turning into sparkling stars. He ran up to the bow of his ship and leaned over to look at the Merry's lamb figurehead. As he did, Chopper ran into the cabin and pressed a button on top of the rudder. Luffy's eyes sparkled even brighter as Merry's eyes glowed red and then fired beams out into a cluster of purple squares in the distance that exploded upon being shot and gave them a passage through.

"Is that the pathway?" Sora called out.

"It kind of looks like the way we came from," Goofy stated, and as he did Sora noticed a few huge space cubes that he recognized as well.

"Hmm," Sora hummed. He looked right and said, "Then how about over-" The boy dropped his jaw as the direction he was looking suddenly got trashed with rubble. The reason why of course, was because a massive space whale just flew straight through the biggest wall he saw in that direction.

"Monstro!" Chopper screamed.

"Head right for it!" Luffy shouted behind him towards the cabin. Chopper gulped but nodded and yanked the rudder hard to twist the Merry to the right. The others held on to the railings as the ship jolted hard to starboard. Donald fell off his flippers and Goofy fell down on top of him.

"Hyuck, sorry Donald," Goofy said as he got up on his feet. The knight looked off the front of the ship and he lifted up his shield as they were heading for a beast several times larger than the pirate ship they were currently on.

"Get ready to fight!" Luffy shouted. He rose a fist and the others all got ready as well. They ran up to the bow and Monstro was heading straight for them. The whale looked angry, but then suddenly it jolted to a stop in space. Everyone looked at the whale confusedly as a disgusted look came to its face. The whale lurched, and twisted around, and then snapped its head forward and opened up its mouth.

Monstro spat and out of its mouth flew none other than the Gummi Ship, with two recognizable faces inside it. The ship came out spinning and smoking, and Sora yelled at Chopper to steer the Merry under it. As they sailed off to catch their friends, a few of them watched as Monstro shook its head around a few times and then turned tail and swam off a different way through space.

"Got 'em!" Luffy shouted. He threw his rubber arms up in the air as they were about to miss the Gummi Ship, and he yanked back hard. His rubbery arms retracted and pulled the ship hard into the Going Merry, and only by Smoker's quick thinking did the two ships not destroy each other. The Marine Captain formed a wall of thick smoke between the two ships right before the Gummi Ship collided, and it simply rolled up the smoke on Luffy's arms and up over the rail.

Smoker sighed as he thought for a second they were going to destroy their only two ways to travel through space, and Robin chuckled behind him at his relieved look. He frowned at her laughter and calmed himself down, then grinned again and lit up a cigar as they were no longer inside a cramped cockpit and he could finally smoke during a space voyage.

The top of the Gummi Ship opened up and smoke from inside billowed out. "Ack agh ack-ak-ak," Usopp and Nami were coughing as they staggered out of the cabin and down to the Merry's deck.

"What did you do to the ship?!" Donald shouted, after spending the last few days while the others were at the WMAT fixing it up.

"It wasn't us!" Nami yelled, then coughed a few more times. She stood up fully and patted down her clothes to get some soot off of her, "That whale ate us! What have you guys been doing all this time?!"

"Fighting pirates," Smoker replied.

"Closing a Keyhole," Sora added.

"Flying," Luffy said with a huge grin. Usopp looked at him in shock and Luffy said, "Watch!" He jumped up in the air, and smiled wide as he expected to fly. Then he slammed back down on the ship right on his face.

"Nice," Nami said in a deadpan tone.

Robin walked up to Nami as she stared at the captain and she leaned in close to the side younger woman's head. Robin whispered something into Nami's ear and her face turned beat red. She looked down and noticed the tank top she had on was on backwards, and as Chopper explained to the others that flying only works in Neverland, Nami quickly slid her shirt back on the right way.

Nami shot her older friend a look telling her not to say a word, but Robin just smiled and walked away, showing no signs that she was going to. Nami sighed in relief and then darted her eyes over to Usopp who was complaining to Luffy that he didn't get to fly. "When we go back to Neverland you can try it too Usopp!" Luffy told his friend.

Chopper suddenly realized something as Luffy finished speaking. The small reindeer creature dropped his jaw and then pointed at the muscular man in a white toga in front of him. "That's Usopp?!" He ran up and looked up at the chiseled jaw of the man, then a little higher to his nose that stuck out of his face. "It is you Usopp!"

"Oi!" Usopp shouted and smacked his hand out in the air. "Where are you looking?"

The others laughed and Usopp explained to Chopper what happened to him after he left the Destiny Islands. Chopper was shocked that it had been so long for Usopp, but he continued to explain what happened after he got eaten by the whale with Nami. "You would not believe the size of that whale's stomach!" Usopp exclaimed. "There was an entire ship in there with a man on it trying to put the ship back together."

"A guy lives inside the whale?" Luffy asked in amazement.

"Yep, and you wouldn't believe who else we saw in there," Usopp added. He turned to Luffy and Sora and said, "Remember the last time we were in Traverse Town and we went into Cid's shop and met that puppet?" The others nodded and Usopp continued, "Well the man inside the whale was his father, Geppetto. And we saw Pinocchio when we were in there too," Usopp added, though he looked a little more upset as he said it.

"Pinocchio!" A voice exclaimed and the crew all looked towards Sora. The boy did not say anything though, and Chopper looked confused as to who just shouted. A small green head poked out from one of Sora's pockets and he jumped out. Jiminy Cricket landed on the side of the Gummi Ship sitting on the deck, and Chopper stumbled back in surprise at the sight of yet another talking animal, this one wearing a tuxedo and a blue hat. "How did he get there?" Jiminy asked Usopp.

"Who is Pinocchio?" Smoker grumbled.

Sora turned to the Marine who did not know who they were talking about. "He's a puppet we met back in Traverse Town."

"A puppet?" Smoker repeated.

"Yeah, but he wanted to be a real boy," Sora explained, not that it explained much to the Marine who just sweatdropped at the kid's answer. "Also, his nose was even longer than Usopp's."

Chopper's jaw dropped as he overheard what Sora said and Usopp yelled, "Oi!" again at him. The reindeer could see Usopp was not too into that yell though, still having the distracted look he had on his face since he brought up Pinocchio. "There's something else," he said, and turned his gaze to Jiminy who did not like the look on his face. "Pinocchio, he-" Usopp hesitated and Nami also looked down, a hurt look flashing on her face. Usopp clenched his fists and finished, "he lost his heart."

Jiminy held his hands over his mouth. Donald quacked softly, "Aww."

"Just like Kairi," Sora said, his hands balling into fists at his side as well.

"Kairi?" Nami asked, turning to the boy who had a distant look in his eyes.

She turned to Robin to get an answer, but the older woman just shook her head at the navigator and mouthed, 'Later.' Nami nodded and decided to hold that conversation for later, though she gulped as she thought of what else Robin would bring up when they were talking alone. She gulped, then blushed and could not help the small smile that came to her face as she looked over at Usopp.

Usopp had just asked what happened on that pirate ship after they got eaten, and as Sora and Luffy were explaining it, he glanced over at Nami who he saw looking his way. His tanner face reddened a little too but he quickly looked back to Luffy after hearing about Mr. Smee's awesome flying battleships that they had to fight.

While they were all talking, Chopper turned to the cricket who seemed especially disturbed ever since Pinocchio was mentioned. He walked over and tried to get the cricket's mind off of it by asking, "Who are you?"

"Me?" Jiminy asked in surprise, spinning to the young furry reindeer he just met. "I am Jiminy Cricket. I keep a journal of all our adventures."

"Actually, Cricket-san," the two of them turned to see Robin walking over. She bent down in front of him and said, "I have something for you." She pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her pocket and the cricket's eyes lit up.

"Is that-" he began.

She nodded her head. "It is another of Ansem's Reports," Robin stated. "Just like the one I found with Jafar's belongings, I found this one on Captain Hook before I tossed him off his ship."

"Ooh! Another report?" Sora asked, turning from the conversation with Luffy and Usopp and looking over at the page Robin was holding out. "Can I read it?"

"Sure Sora," Jiminy told the teenage boy. "Would you like to see the other one too? I do not believe you have read it yet."

Sora jogged over and took the paper from Robin and the one that Jiminy held out for him. "Yeah, thanks," he told the journal-keeper. He looked at the two pages and said, "Ansem's Report 1, and number 9. Guess I'll start with the first one," he cleared his throat and the others all looked towards him. The boy spoke in a loud voice, "'Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect. But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times. Darkness...Darkness of the heart. How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers. I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness.'"

The boy stopped and he lowered the page. He had a confused look on his face that matched that of most people around him. "This Ansem, he sounds like the great Ansem Leon told us about. Leon did say he spent his life studying the Heartless."

"Read the other one," Robin said, her voice more hesitant almost like she did not agree with Sora. Smoker looked at the woman oddly, wondering what qualm she had with a ruler who sounded like he has the respect of his people.

Sora nodded at her and he lifted up the other one. "Alright, Ansem's Report 9 here goes. Ahem, 'Simply astonishing! Today I had a guest from another world. He is a king, and his vessel is built of the material that composed the meteors. He called the pieces "gummi blocks". It seemed that my opening the door has opened a path to interworld travel. We talked for countless hours, but one story in particular caught my interest: that of a key called the "Keyblade". The Keyblade is said to hold phenomenal power. One legend says its wielder saved the world, while another says that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it. I must know what this Keyblade is. A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door I have opened.'"

"Gawrsh, you think he was talking about King Mickey?" Goofy asked and looked to Donald.

"Of course he was," Donald replied excitedly. "We're getting close."

"What was that guy talking about with the door he opened?" Nami wondered aloud. "I think we need to find those other reports. Something seems off. The way he speaks too, it's just… creepy, I don't know."

Neither Sora nor Luffy spoke up as the others discussed the paper. They were thinking about the same thing, and Sora lifted up his right hand to make it appear. The Keyblade. He stared at it and turned it back and forth in his hand, _The Keyblade is said to hold phenomenal power. One legend says its wielder saved the world, while another says that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it…_ Sora found his own gaze subconsciously shifting to Luffy. _Chaos and ruin, I would never do that. Luffy wouldn't either! Why would he, why would a legend say that?_

"I don't get it," Luffy mumbled. He lifted up his right hand and his red and black Keyblade appeared. "Why'd I get this thing?"

"I ask myself that every day," Smoker muttered.

"It must be because you're supposed to help set everything right Luffy," Sora told his friend. Luffy turned to the teen who stepped his way, "We have to seal the Keyholes and fight the Heartless. It's why we have the Keyblades."

Luffy looked down at his Keyblade and he hummed to himself, "Hmmm."

"Okay," Sora called out and clapped his hands together. "Let's go to the next world!"

"Which way?" Chopper asked, about to head to the rudder.

"Umm," Sora mumbled. He looked around and then snapped his gaze to the Gummi Ship in front of him. There was less smoke coming off of it now, and Sora turned to Donald, "Do you think the navigation system is still working?"

Donald looked at his ship and grumbled complaints about how he was going to have to fix it again. He peered over the top though and coughed a few times, before reaching in and pressing a few buttons on the front console. "Yep, it's working all right. I'll set in the coordinates." He typed a few buttons and the ship turned forty five degrees left so it was pointing diagonally off the front of the ship.

"Guess that's our new heading," Nami said. She turned and called out to Chopper which way to go, and when the Merry turned, the Gummi Ship on top of it turned too until it was pointing directly at the back of the Merry's figurehead. "That's good!" Nami called out and Chopper left the rudder the direction he put it.

He left the door to the cabin open and shouted out, "Can someone stay at the front of the bow and call out which way to go to dodge obstacles? I need to know when to fire the lasers too!"

Nami sighed loudly before anyone else could volunteer. "It's my job as the navigator after all," she said. She marched off for the bow and shouted, "Usopp, let out the sails. Luffy tie down the cannon. Sora-" Nami started barking out orders and Donald frowned that they were stuck on a pirate ship now.

"We're the King's soldiers, not pirates," Donald quacked at Goofy who was looking around with a goofy smile.

"But they sure look happy to have their ship back," the tall dog-person said. Donald looked around and he had to admit that the Straw Hats definitely looked excited to be on their own ship again. Luffy was even lying down on top of the figurehead with his arms wrapped around it.

"Hmph," Donald humphed and crossed his arms. "I still don't like it."

"Come on Donald, cheer up," Sora said as he jogged by the duck and dog. "Why don't you guys help out?" They turned and watched Sora run after Luffy and start tying ropes down with him.

"Looks like Sora's excited too," Goofy said and he laughed into his hand at Sora's childish amazement at getting to be a pirate. Donald joined in on the laughter, but after a few minutes the two of them found themselves right at Sora's side, helping him and Luffy sail the Going Merry through space.

* * *

"The next world is right there," Nami called out. The smoke from the explosions of the last Heartless spaceship squadron they took down was clearing and she could see a world behind it. She leaned forward and then shivered at the sight of the world up ahead. "Brr, something's seriously weird about that place," she said.

The others running up to the bow after hearing her announcement looked out and many of them looked nervous too. "That place sure looks creepy, but creepy in a good way," Sora mentioned. The world looked like a giant orange pumpkin covered in dark buildings, with clouds that looked like ghosts, and buildings that had roofs that were shaped like witches' hats.

"It looks like a lovely place," Robin said with a smile as she looked at the world.

"Let's go!" Luffy shouted.

The Going Merry started to descend towards the world below. While they lowered though, a few of them noticed something strange. Sora's excited smile began to fade and he whispered, "That doesn't look good."

"No, it does not," Smoker growled. Out from different parts of the world in front of them spewed dark, black ooze. There were swirling patches of darkness all over the place that looked a lot spookier than the world itself.

"Lower us down here," Nami called back to Chopper, before looking forward and gulping at the sight of a flare of darkness shooting up from a few miles in front of where they were dropping down. "There's an open spot there!" She shouted.

"Are you gonna come with us Donald?" Sora asked as they neared the surface. "Or are you going to stay and fix the Gummi Ship?"

"No way," Donald crossed his arms in front of him. "It's not my fault it got broken. Someone else has to fix it this time." As he said it, he subtly waved his wand around before putting it back at his side and snickering.

"Not your fault?" an angry voice growled down at him. Donald's face covered in sweat and he looked up at the woman glaring down at him with half her face covered in darkness. Nami's teeth were literally sharpening and she had horns growing out the front of her head. "You fell out of the ship, it is one hundred percent your fault! It's your fault we got eaten by Monstro too! And you-" she stopped shouting as something weird started happening to Donald.

It was happening to all of them. Their bodies were changing and so were their clothes. An orange pumpkin mask appeared in front of Sora's face that he moved to the side so he could see better, but as he opened his mouth to mention it he felt weird. He flicked his tongue at his upper row of teeth and was surprised to see his canines had extended like fangs. Usopp looked at his arms and watched as rods started sticking out of them and stitches appeared all over his body like some sort of Frankenstein's monster. Every one of them became adorned in dark, spooky clothing that matched the overall dark feel of this world they were landing on.

"Look," Sora said, pointing over at a gate near the town's entrance they were dropping outside of. "Halloween Town," he read, "that must be the name of this world."

Luffy finished checking out his cool spooky body that went well with this world just like how in Bikini Bottom his body changed to match the world. As he thought about that, he turned to Donald and tilted his head to the side. Donald kept snickering under his breath as everyone shouted about the changes being done to their bodies. Donald's body was covered in white wrappings like he was a mummy and he did not look too surprised by it.

The pirate captain chuckled along with the duck who saw that he noticed and was surprised Luffy didn't say anything. Luffy turned back towards the gate of the town near them and he pointed to it, "Let's go check this place out." The Going Merry landed right as he said it and the bottom of the ship stopped sparkling with golden light, though most of them did not even notice it was glowing for the entire trip.

The furry reindeer steering the ship ran outside in a panic because he suddenly transformed into Heavy Point and had sharp teeth. He screamed loudly though when he saw all the scary figures on the front of the ship. They turned when he yelled and his face turned blue at the sight of Smoker's snow-white face that let his bone structure show through like he was a skeleton. Robin's face was half shadowed and a red eye glowed from inside the pitch blackness of the left side of her face. Nami's teeth were sharp and she had horns, while Usopp looked like an undead monster, and even Luffy gained some more hair on his arms and legs and his ears got a little bigger and hairier too.

"Whoa! Chopper looks awesome," Sora mentioned, right before hopping off the bow of the ship.

"Nice fur Chopper," Usopp called over to the reindeer whose fur was longer and darker than usual.

Chopper relaxed as everyone might have looked like monsters, but they were all still the friends he knew. He ran forward and jumped off the bow more carefully then chased after Luffy. Nami carefully jumped off after him, but her caution was unnecessary as there was someone down below who lifted his arms and slowed her fall. "Thanks," she said as Usopp put her down. The man smiled at her and then quickly removed his arms as Robin landed next to the two of them. He chuckled and ran after Luffy while Nami and Robin walked behind him. Nami could see Robin smirking at her with a sideways glance and Nami whispered under her breath, "Later."

Smoker flew down from the ship and reformed his smokey, skeletal body. He looked up at the top of the gate of the town and read the word made of crooked steel bars. "Halloween Town. Are they serious?" The man looked down at his own body and back at the spooky town before him. Inside the gate he could see a fountain in the middle of the town that was spewing green goo that looked like acid, and there were ghosts floating around the inner town as well. "Guess so," he muttered darkly.

The gates of long skinny black bars started creaking loudly as they opened outwards for the group of creepy creatures on the outskirts of town. Sora marched right in next to Luffy with Donald and Goofy walking behind them, but all four of them came to an abrupt halt as someone sprinted in front of the gate. The man's head had a terrified face on the front, but as he ran past they could see the back of his head had another, much more terrify-_ing_ face that had all four of them jumping in fright. The scared face was the one that shouted though, "Jack! Jack!"

"It looks like everyone on this world is scary," Sora said. The creepy guy with two faces was wearing a tall black hat two times as tall as his own small, fat, triangular body. And as Sora looked closer at the guy's smiling face, he realized it was as creepy if not creepier than the scary pale-faced one on the back of his head.

"If they scare us, we'll scare 'em right back," Donald reassured the teen.

Chasing the two-faced man turned out to be three ghost creatures with beams of yellow light pointing out of their heads like spotlights. They were floating off the ground and the triangle-guy's scary face shouted, "Jack! The Heartless are here!"

The people at the open gate looked around at each other in surprise. They looked back into the square and gazed around to see all the doors shut tight, but a few doors flew open as they were looking and people, very scary people, ran out screaming. Dog-like Shadows crawled out of the doors after them and chased the monstrous people of the world around their own square.

Sora snapped his hands down to his right side and his Three Wishes golden Keyblade appeared in his hands. He was about to charge the ghosts chasing after the Mayor of Halloween Town, when a tall skeleton jumped out of nowhere and spun around into the ghosts. They got slammed back by this skeleton wearing a fancy striped suit, who slammed his fists and pointy feet into the Heartless creatures. The Mayor came to a stop and spun around in relief, "Oh Jack! Wonderful! You have to get these Heartless under control!"

"Sorry Mayor," Jack said as he knocked the creatures away again and a few of them exploded into yellow and green orbs. "Lock, Shock, and Barrel stole the Heart we were fixing to try and get the Heartless to listen."

Sora saw something coming up behind Jack and he ran forward. The skeleton turned right as the Shadow popped up from being flat on the floor behind him, but a Keyblade smashed down into the creature before it could claw at him. Sora did a four-hit combo on the Shadow to knock it back, but the creature did not explode when it hit the ground. "Ehh?" Sora exclaimed, thinking he was strong enough to take on Shadows at this point.

"The Heartless are getting stronger!" Donald reminded him. The duck held up his wand and lightning rained from the sky down on the Heartless Shadows, but he only destroyed the one that Sora already put some damage on.

"Wow!" Jack Skellington shouted in surprise at the strange powers of those running into the town and fighting the Heartless. The first four inside did a fairly good job, but when the rest of the group got into the square, another round of Heartless appeared all over. They ran around fighting Heartless for a few minutes until the town square was finally safe. Sora finished off his last Heartless and stopped back-to-back with another fighter who just destroyed a Heartless himself.

The skeleton turned and looked down at the dark-clothed boy with a few sharp teeth and a pumpkin mask slid off the side of his face. "Great job…"

"Sora," the boy said and held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you Sora. I'm Jack. Now…" he looked around like he was trying to find something.

Sora tapped on the dead man's back and Jack turned to him. The boy was standing in front of the whole crowd he walked into town with, and he asked, "What are all these Heartless doing here?"

"Oh," Jack turned and he looked upset. "The Heartless came to town recently. At first, they were harmless, and I wanted to get them to dance for this Halloween! But, a few days ago they started going out of control. Oogie Boogie has a hand in this, I know it."

"Where is this Oogie Boogie guy?" Sora asked. He looked back at his friends and they all nodded like they thought it was a good idea to go after him too. He looked back at Jack who looked at the boy in surprise, then turned and extended his hand.

Jack pointed out past town and over a graveyard to a strange-looking hill in the distance. "Past the hill is Oogie's mansion. The place is crawling with Heartless though."

"Don't worry," Sora said and smirked at his new friend. "We can handle anything they throw at us."

* * *

**A/N The Keyhole for Neverland has been sealed! The crew leaves for the next world and run into Usopp and Nami getting spit out of a whale's stomach. They arrive on Halloween Town, but unlike the game where when they arrive the Heartless are all complacent, things have already gotten out of control here. How will they handle this world? Find out next time, on Broken Log Pose! Hope you enjoyed!**

nightmaster000 chapter 22 . Nov 15

Great chapter

**Thanks!**

Evileyes7 chapter 4 . Dec 17

Conqueror's haki wouldn't work on heartless. Since they have no emotions like fear, they can't be intimidated.

**Idk about that cuz Heartless are made from Hearts. Besides, I don't think Conqueror's Haki is purely intimidation considering Luffy can knock out people not even looking at him. I'd say since Heartless are made from people's hearts, but don't have very strong "willpowers" they could be frozen by Haki. The stronger Heartless made from stronger people's hearts might have a harder time being destroyed by Conqueror's Haki. Anyway, that's just my take on it. Thanks for the review.**


	24. Chapter 24

**BLP 24:**

"What is that thing?" Nami peered closer to the table but the lump of metal on it did not look any clearer to her. It was round on some parts, with valves and discs stuck in it randomly like someone was trying to make the thing work but could not figure it out.

The scientist at the side of the table rolled his wheelchair around. Like everyone else on this crazy world, he had a terrifying appearance with a head too massive that apparently held his larger-than-average brain. "That my dear, is a heart of course."

Sora spun to the doctor in surprise. Their entire group had followed Jack back to his friend the "Doctor" who turned out to be this mad scientist. His lab was dark and spooky, made entirely of metal with an operating table in the center of the room and work areas around it. The Doctor spun to the side of the table and he held up a scalpel and a buzzsaw. "The key to stopping the Heartless has to be with this heart," he muttered to himself. "But although I have all the ingredients I need, the heart still will not work." He put down his tools and scratched his chin, then shouted, "Sally!"

A woman ran around a corner and into the room. Her skin was gray and she looked frail, thin and sickly. "Oh Jack," Sally said upon entering the room, seeing the skeleton there. She looked around, "And who are all these people?" she questioned.

Sora opened his mouth but got cut off by the Doctor. "No time for introductions," the mad scientist snapped. "Have you any luck at finding the children?"

"Children?" Smoker muttered.

Jack turned to the other skeletal-looking figure in the room with white hair and a white toga on. "Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Those kids keep causing us trouble lately."

"They stole the heart!" The Doctor exclaimed.

Luffy pointed at the table, "But, it's right there."

Nami bonked her captain on the head for his stupidity, then realized what he just said and turned to look at the heart too. "Wait, was Luffy right?" She questioned, confused and surprised at the same time.

Luffy jumped up and started yelling at her for hitting him for no reason, while the Doctor turned his chair to face them. "This heart," he began, stopping their fight and making them turn back to him. "It was not the first heart in our possession. Those rotten children nabbed the first heart, not that I could get that one to work either!" He threw his hands up in the air and started rolling his chair around again.

Sally watched the Doctor leave, then turned back to Jack, "Have you had any luck in stopping the Heartless."

"Oh yes!" Jack exclaimed happily. He grabbed Sally by the wrists and threw his arms around for emphasis as he explained quickly how the people in the room with him were very strong and helped stop the Heartless. Jack was oblivious, but most of the others noticed Sally's face go red when he grabbed her wrists and Nami even stole a glance at Robin and they both giggled.

"So about this Oogie Boogie guy," Luffy brought up.

Jack let go of Sally's arms and spun excitedly, nodding his head and saying, "That Oogie, he's the one behind the heart's robbery, and the Heartless too. I'm sure of it!"

"Jack, you can't go after Oogie," Sally warned, sounding worried about him as she did. "You could be hurt."

"Don't you worry Sally," Jack said, waving her off with his hand and not even looking at her. Nami got a tick mark on the side of her forehead as she was expecting some romantic scene only for Jack to push her off like nothing was wrong. Jack started heading for the door though and he looked back in the room, "I'm sure Sora and Luffy and their friends can help me. They already offered."

"Ah! Where are you going?" Donald quacked after the skeleton going back to the door of the lab.

Jack turned to the duck, "After Oogie of course!"

"Already?" Nami wondered, while half the group just started walking towards Jack. She sighed and walked his way as well, "Usually I like to spend more time on the world first. This place is creepy enough that I don't really mind though."

"You got that right," a muscular man on her right said. She turned and saw Usopp with a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. She stared at him in surprise for a second, then had to lift up her hand and laugh into it. Usopp looked down at her and questioned, "What?"

"Nothing," she said, stopping her laughter. "I guess even Captain Lazerblades has his limits."

Usopp went a little red in the face and he flexed his arms, saying that he had no idea what she was talking about. "Captain Lazerblades?" The two of them turned to see Chopper behind them, looking at Usopp confusedly as to why Nami called him that. Nami groaned as the reindeer brought it up, and she moved on ahead once Usopp started spinning the story of his time as the amazing hero back in the Olympus Coliseum.

Behind the group, standing next to the table near her creator, Sally put her hands together in front of her chest. "Be careful Jack, everyone."

* * *

"Zero!" Jack exclaimed. Although the lanky skeleton was happy to see his dog, the others with him all had dropped jaws at the sight of it.

"Gh-Gh-Ghost dog!" Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Donald, and Sora shouted at the same time. Robin looked at the dog intrigued, and smiled at the sight of its red nose that lit up when it barked at Jack. Luffy just put his hand through the dog and laughed as it did nothing.

The dog did a few spin and then flew to the right. Jack nodded his head and he turned around, "Zero says he found a way to Oogie's castle. It's this way!" He started running off, Luffy and Sora right behind him.

"More Heartless!" Usopp shouted behind them. The group glanced back, to see five Shadows appearing on the ground on the side of the town and ghost-Heartless appearing in the air above them.

"We need to get to Oogie's!" Sora shouted. For some reason, the boy sounded more worried than before and the others all looked his way. Sora did not know himself, but something gave him a strange feeling. He turned and looked back towards the graveyard that Zero flew into to lead them. The spiky haired kid grabbed the left side of his chest and clenched tight on his shirt. "Come on! Let's go!"

He ran off and let go of his chest, forming a Keyblade instead, the one he received from the previous world. Dragon's Breath formed in his right hand and he swung it to the right at the same moment that a giant tombstone started falling down towards him for some strange reason. His Keyblade smashed through the stone, but out of the rubble appeared several Heartless. Two rubber fists slammed into the Shadows as they dove for Sora, but the boy barely looked like he noticed.

Sora was spinning around where he stood after he crushed the tombstone with one swipe. "Something's wrong," he said.

Jack stopped attacking the Heartless in front of them and he looked back at the boy. "What is it Sora?"

Sora spun and looked at Jack with a scared look. "I've felt this before," he whispered. In his mind flashed a vision of a black sky, a sphere of black and purple with an orange core in the middle. Sora was panting hard and he grabbed at his chest again in pain as he closed his eyes. He could see the ground beneath him crumbling and everything falling into a void of darkness.

"Sora!"

The boy's eyes snapped open as someone shouted at him. He looked in front of him and saw them all staring right at him. Everyone, from Luffy, to Jack, to Goofy, to the translucent dog Zero, they were all staring right at him. "This world," Sora began.

_**RRRrruuummmm CHCH!**_ The ground started shaking so hard that everyone took a step to steady themselves. It happened so hard and so fast that a few of them were knocked off their feet. All of the tall tombstones around them lost their holds on the ground and collapsed, and as soon as they broke open Heartless came pouring out of them.

The group of pirates, animals, a Marine, a skeleton and his ghost dog, and one child, looked around to see themselves surrounded by Heartless in every direction. "This is strange," Smoker growled. "There are never this many Heartless in one place."

Sora turned left and he watched as a crack ripped in the ground like a fissure. The crack shot across the floor through the graveyard from one side to the other. He kept staring at it and the fissure split apart farther, and darkness started seeping out in wisps like the entire planet was filled with darkness and the crack was letting it out. "We need to find the Keyhole," Sora said, his eyes opening wide. He spun and his friends were all glancing at him again, the ones who were not fighting off attacking Heartless at least. "Right now!" Sora shouted.

Luffy turned and he looked the younger boy in the eyes. He stared straight into Sora's blue eyes and saw a fear he had not seen in the boy's eyes before. _Sora would know. He's got this whole Keyblade thing down. Saving worlds, I don't care, but…_ Luffy saw a blurry Sora sinking down to save him from drowning. He saw the boy landing on the Merry with his straw hat in his hands, blood all over his arm after cutting himself from trying to get it. Luffy's mouth curled into a big grin, "Ignore the Heartless!" He shouted. "Let's go find Oogie Boogie!"

"We can't just ignore them!" Usopp shouted, and slammed his broadsword into another Heartless ghost's claws as it swiped at him. He pushed hard and sent the ghost flying back into the Heartless behind it. He started panting as he had to put a lot of strength to send just that one flying, and he tssked under his breath afterwards. _They're getting much stronger, and fast!_ He had to raise his sword to block the next attack, but two more were coming from his sides. His eyes opened wide, but a big furry monster slammed into the one on his left, and a dog with a shield smashed into the one on his right.

"We got your back," Goofy said to the man next to him who grinned back at the dog.

"I'm fighting with the legendary hero!" Chopper exclaimed, still excited from what Usopp told him back in the lab.

_**RRuummmmbbbrrr **_The ground shook again and Sora looked back at the fissure in the ground to see smaller cracks coming off of it. The crack was extending back towards the town and his eyes went wide. "We need to go!" Sora shouted. "Lead the way!" He shouted at Zero who barked back affirmatively and flew away. Sora chased after with Jack at his side, but the pirates took a second.

Robin was looking at the fissure as well and watching as the darkness spewed out of it. She suddenly realized why Sora was panicking so much, and she turned to Luffy who was getting ready to run after Sora. "Captain-san," she began, making Luffy turn to her confused at why her voice sounded a little nervous. Nervousness in Robin's voice did not sound natural, and it spooked the others with them too. "I believe some of us should go back to the Going Merry. This world is falling apart. Should it collapse, the ones on the ship would be able to pick the rest up."

The others all stared at her in shock and then started looking around themselves. The ground was not shaking at the moment, and other than the huge fissure in the ground ahead of them, not much looked horribly wrong with the world. Heartless were everywhere, but they were all over the place on other worlds too. Most of them just figured there were more here because they had yet to close the Keyhole. Robin repeated in a serious voice, "I highly suggest we do this."

Nami turned to her older friend, "This planet, you really think it's collapsing?"

Robin nodded her head. Luffy smiled at her though, "We're not going to let that happen!"

He started turning back to chase after Sora, but Chopper called to him, "Maybe we should protect the Merry anyway! In case the Heartless attack!"

Usopp nodded his head and when Luffy was only halfway turned back, he shouted ahead, "Go ahead Luffy. I'll guard the ship!"

Luffy looked at him completely. "Are you sure?" The captain asked, knowing how much Usopp liked these adventures.

Usopp slammed a fist to his chest and the gladiator proclaimed, "I'll guard her with my life!"

Chopper slammed a big furry fist into his chest too, "Our lives!"

Luffy started laughing, "Shishishi, okay! See you later!" He turned and started running off again, Smoker turning his lower body to smoke next to him to follow quickly as well. Donald and Goofy chased after behind, and Nami looked from one group to the other, before chasing after Luffy and the others.

Nami glanced back as she ran and looked into Usopp's eyes. The man nodded at her, and then he turned his gaze to Robin and to Chopper seriously. "We have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice," he said in a deep voice, losing the joking tone from when Luffy was within earshot. The ground started shaking again and they heard screams coming from back near the town. Heartless appeared between them and there, and the three pirates grimaced as they watched the ground behind those Heartless stay black like more Heartless were on their way. The circle of black on the ground they came out of started to spread and it overcame gravestones and fences on the sides of it.

"The darkness is spreading everywhere," Chopper whispered fearfully. He wished the magic of this world did not turn him into a scary beast, because right now he felt like his small point would exemplify his scared emotions a lot better.

"Come on," Usopp said to the two next to him. "Let's get back to the ship."

* * *

"Good! Very good!" Maleficent held up her arms and cackled as more and more darkness seeped out of the Keyhole. She turned her head and said, "Oogie Boogie, my associate, I underestimated you. How did you find this Keyhole? I thought you still had no ideas as to where it was."

"Duuhahaha!" Oogie leaned back and put his pointy hands on the side of his body. The man was made of potato sacks sewn together at the sides, with two black eyes and a black mouth and a pointy top of his head to match his hands and feet. "You wouldn't believe it! This here is my own manor!"

Maleficent's huge grin faltered and the woman sighed, putting her arms back down to her sides. "So what you're telling me is that it was inside your own home?" She looked at him sternly for a second, then shook her head and regained her grin. "No matter. This is a victory. It is only a matter of time until this world falls into the darkness now."

"And I'm gonna rule over it when it does," Oogie claimed and started laughing again.

Maleficent turned and shook her head at the foolish man. "No. Before that happens, you must be off this world-"

"Oi! Don't tell me how to run my business you ol' hag!" Oogie called and he started laughing again.

Maleficent shook and she lifted up her staff a little, until the ground below her trembled and the corners of her lips curled up. "You are right. I will let you get back to it," she told him in a composed manner. A portal of darkness appeared behind her and the woman stepped back into it and faded away.

As she faded, three small figures hiding behind a pillar in Oogie Boogie's manor's highest room came out of hiding. "Hey boss!" A little girl in a purple dress shouted. "I think that mean witch was saying something about getting away from here."

A pudgy little boy took his mask off and said nervously, "I don't like this. This, feeling," he stared at the keyhole that was revealed on the ceiling and at the darkness coming out of it. The ground rumbled and their ceiling shook, dust and even a few small chunks of it coming off.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel huddled together in fear but Oogie just kept laughing. "You just don't get it! This is what we've been going for!"

"But why?" the skinnier of the two small boys shouted.

"Why?" Oogie asked like it was stupid. He smiled wide and said, "Well that's to-" Oogie scratched the side of his head and hummed. "Uhh, what was it again? Well, whatever it is, I'm going to be in charge of it!" He pointed at himself and started cracking up. Oogie Boogie was facing the children in front of him, but if he was looking back at the Keyhole he would have noticed the darkness spilling over the sides had filled up so that the entire keyhole shape was now full of darkness so that it spread out and made the keyhole lose its shape. The roof just covered in a veil of black that seeped through the material of Oogie's roof and let darkness come out of the top of his manor in long wisps.

A mile down from the top of the manor, seven figures stared up at the top of the building and the darkness at the top. Jack clenched his fists at his sides as he saw even more darkness coming out of the roof that out of cracks they passed on their way to the castle. "I knew it! Oogie was responsible for all of this!"

"Let's climb the house!" Luffy shouted and pointed over at a bridge. They followed the bridge with their eyes and saw a tower at the end with a platform that was raising up on its own to the next floor then coming back down for more passengers. At the top of that platform there was a path that wound around and around the giant manor that their enemy lived in. The building looked like a tree with so many branches sticking out, some with cages on them, some with birds perched on them.

Sora looked closer at one of those birds and he ground his teeth as it turned out not to be a bird at all, but a Flying Heartless Soldier. They had aviator hats and purple wings and sharp claws that Sora knew firsthand packed a serious punch. "It's going to be a battle to get to the top," Sora said, and he stepped forward anyway as he said it.

"Heartless are going to appear every step of the way," Smoker agreed.

"We can take them," Luffy claimed and clenched a fist in front of him.

"Oogie," Jack said darkly and lifted up his fists.

Nami connected the three pieces of her Perfect Clima Tact and held it in a ready stance. "I'll get us to the top in no time flat," she said. The orange haired woman stepped forward and sighed in a teasing way, "What would you guys do without me?"

"We need to get to the top," Smoker mumbled. "Not much need for a navigator."

Nami got a tick mark on her forehead and turned her head a little to glare back at the man who looked away like it wasn't him. Nami spun back ahead and took another step, but Sora stepped in front of her. He held out his right arm and she stopped. She was about to ask him what he was doing, when out from the sky dropped a blob of purple taller than a person and ten times as wide. The blob was giving off a horrible feeling of darkness, and monsters started appearing around it.

"This place is a like a fortress," Donald shouted.

"Gee, I hope we can make it in time," Goofy whispered to the duck next to him.

"Of course we will," Sora said, having overheard the big-mouthed dog. He stepped forward and two Shadows dove at him. As they struck, his body burst in white light, and two loud clanks sounded. Sora stepped out of the light in all red clothes, holding up his Dragon's Breath and Three Wishes Keyblades. He pushed hard and parried both Shadows back, and while they were still falling backwards, the boy shot forwards and stopped on the other side of his enemies. The Shadows hit the ground, and then exploded into bubbles of darkness.

Sora did not wait another second, and he started sprinting across the bridge as fast as he could, striking back and forth at every Heartless that appeared. He was taking hits as well, but even though he could not Cure himself in Valor Form, he had stronger defense in the form and was making it despite the hits on his body. Donald used his magic to call down lightning on the enemies they fought as they ran, but when he saw Sora falter after a heavy hit from a flying Heartless that dove down and slashed him, he tossed up a potion, "Sora!"

Green light shimmered down over Sora's body and he felt his strength go back up, though not by much. He kept fighting, while Donald and Goofy caught up to him. Above his head he saw Luffy covered in steam with his fists moving super fast and Gattling Gunning the flying Heartless away, while Smoker did the same thing with dozens of arms made of smoke. Sora and the two animals with him quickly offed the group of Heartless they were fighting on the ground, and when they finished Sora turned to the duck next to him. "Are the potions getting weaker?"

Nami was catching up to them after finally finishing off the first Heartless she started fighting back on the bridge. She slowed down as she heard Sora ask the question, but she had given herself a potion on the way to the manor and she did not notice at all. Goofy did not either, but he understood why Sora was asking and he laughed. "Hyuck, Sora, you're just getting stronger." Sora's eyes widened and the dog laughed again before continuing, "Potions only bring up a certain amount of health. The stronger you are, the less they do."

"We'll have to try to find more hi-potions," Donald said. "Potions already barely do anything for this palooka," he shoved a finger at Goofy who laughed at that. Sora nodded his head as he realized it always did take him more Cure magic to heal Goofy than it did for Donald, or even for himself.

"Sora come on!" The four down below looked up to see Luffy and Smoker already on the next tier of platforms, running around the tower to get to Oogie's top room. Jack was the one who shouted, and a previously-invisible dog on his right became visible and barked down at them. Jack turned to see his dog and shouted, "Zero! What are you doing- Sally? She's what?" The skeleton kept running while Sora and the others sped up to catch up to them.

Luffy ran side by side with Smoker and he flashed the Marine a big grin as they ran. Smoker grumbled to himself and kept his gaze straight ahead despite being able to see the smiling pirate in his peripheral vision. _No more fighting with them. Fates of entire worlds rest in their hands, and I have the ability to help them. Even now,_ he felt the entire world shake below him, harder than it had the previous times. He heard a loud crack and both he and the pirate on his left came to a stop and turned to stare at the branch sticking off the path. The start of the branch, not far from them, had cracked from one side all the way to the other.

The crack got louder and louder as it went through the entire branch's thickness. And then it snapped. The sound of the snap was much louder than any of the cracks, and Luffy and Smoker watched it fall for a second. They would have followed it down farther, if something in the distance did not catch their attentions as they watched the branch drop. A crack similar to the one they saw in the graveyard had appeared, only since they could see it from such a far distance they understood how huge the fissure must actually be. Every shake of the planet made the fissure spread farther apart, and darkness shot up from the crack like flames raging as high as Oogie's manor.

Sora turned his head right as he ran to catch up with the others and his blue eyes turned huge. "That's not good!" Donald quacked loudly.

Nami stared at the flames in fear and she spun her head the other way, looking out into the distance where she could see the tops of a few buildings. _Robin, Chopper, Usopp, get the ship ready. I don't want to think it, but,_ the ground shook again and Nami stumbled towards the ledge of the path. Parts of the pathway up Oogie Boogie's mansion were ripping off, and when she stumbled to the ledge it had just started crumbling. She let out a yelp and reached back for the path, and a strong arm grabbed her by the wrist and pulled back.

Nami fell forward right on top of the figure who pulled her in. She shook her head and looked down to see a tall dog smiling goofily up at her. "Thanks Goofy," she said, and got back up to her feet.

"Gawrsh, you're welcome Nami," the knight replied. They both heard rumbling and looked down the path they were running on. Pieces of it were falling off more lower down, and the two of them gulped and turned around to sprint up the path faster.

At the top of the tower, Oogie Boogie stared out over the world with a mad grin on his face. "Duuhahaha! This darkness thing's really working out! Who knew the Keyholes were so dang powerful?" Oogie laughed some more as another crack ripped through the landscape and crossed over one that was already there. The point where the cracks crossed dipped in for a second, and then exploded out so chunks of earth rose up in the air and got torn up by a black pillar of darkness shooting out of the planet. "Whooo!" Oogie Boogie shouted in excitement.

"Oogie!"

The fat sack spun around and looked towards the door of his tower in surprise. Standing there right in the doorway was his arch-enemy Jack, but the skeleton was not alone. Oogie saw all these people gathering in his door and he turned left, "Take care of them." The intruders turned as well and saw three children nod furiously at their boos and then sprint towards them. All three kids were wearing masks, and they were swinging their arms or spinning around to attack the new people who entered the room.

Before Shock, Lock, or Barrel could reach them, one of the figures in the doorway simply pointed his right arm at them and his arm exploded into a cloud of smoke. Smoker's arm got wider, surrounded all three kids, and smothered them into the ground. "Ah! He got us!" Barrel shouted.

Oogie started shaking angrily as the three of them were no use whatsoever. "Hey Oogie!" Sora shouted, stepping into the room and raising up his Keyblade. His red clothes had just vanished on the last group of Heartless he was fighting outside, and now all he had was his Kingdom Key in his hands. "What did you do? What happened to this world?"

Jack turned and looked at Sora confusedly, and Donald quacked and facepalmed at Sora's releasing of top secret information. Before Jack could ask what Sora meant by that though, Oogie started laughing like mad and he held up his arms at his sides. Out from the floor on either side of him appeared five Shadows and two Flying Soldier Heartless above them. "With the Keyhole all mine, the Heartless come out easier than ever! Duuhahaha!"

"I knew it!" Jack shouted and pointed at Oogie. "I knew you had something to do with the Heartless going wild."

"The Keyhole?" Sora whispered.

Nami had just caught up with Goofy and she heard what Oogie said as well. _That's what Jafar was so eager to find. Is this what happens when one of them gets their hands on it?_

"That's right!" Oogie shouted down at Sora. "Found it just this morning! Now this world's all mine!"

Sora took a step back and his face paled. _This morning? But… No! There's still time!_ "Where is it?!"

"Hehehe! Beats me!" Oogie lied and started laughing madly like he really did know. The madman turned and started running farther into his room. As he ran, he slammed his hand down on a red button he was running past. "I'll tell you if you can survive the torture room!" He leapt up in the air and metal gates dropped from the ceiling with spikes on top of them. The floor started shifting and assembly-line-like machines rose out of the ground with bombs on them. The assembly lines led into dark holes underneath the raised section Oogie was standing on, and there were flashing green and red lights under the holes.

Luffy punched a fist up towards Oogie, but a pink barrier formed in front of him that stopped Luffy's fist. Sora pointed at the bombs on the lines and shouted, "I think we need to hit those at him to take down his forcefield!"

Sora looked panicked, and Luffy turned to the younger boy and looked at him oddly. "We're going to beat him Sora."

The spiky haired boy nodded, and he tried to smile as well, "Yeah, of course we will!" He felt the floor beneath his feet shake and he grimaced. _I just hope we're in time._

* * *

"Please! We need your help!"

Usopp, Chopper, and Robin all looked off the side of the Going Merry to the path in between their ship and the gates of Halloween Town. The Mayor was standing there with his panicked, pale-white face looking at them. "The Heartless are going wild in town, Jack's missing, and-" _**BBBRRRRR!**_ The ground shook so hard that the pirate ship tilted to its right side and looked like it was going to fall for a second.

The Mayor screamed and the pirates looked past him into Halloween Town where the citizens were running around in a panic. One of the gate's posts lost its hold in the ground and crumbled, and the gate itself creaked before bending in and collapsing. "We have to help them!" Chopper exclaimed.

The furry creature reached for the railing, but Usopp stuck out a muscular arm in front of him. The monster covered in stitches looked down at Chopper, "Get the ship ready to leave. At a moment's notice." He said it as seriously as he could and Chopper gulped but nodded at this new Usopp who was much different from the man he remembered back on Destiny Islands and the Grand Line before that.

"Robin," Usopp continued softer while Chopper ran off. The older woman turned to him and they both ignored the Mayor who kept shouting at them from below. "How long do you think this world has?"

Robin hummed to herself for a second and had to steady as the ground shook once more. "Truthfully, I do not remember much of our world's destruction. I do not know how long such things should take, however," she looked around and saw dark flames shooting up from cracks all around them. The cracks were still pretty far apart, but they were much closer now than they were when the first tremors started. "With the exponential increase of cracks continuing at its current pace, I would say ten minutes at most."

"Ten minutes?" Usopp whispered. He looked towards the town and heard screams, "Alright, guard the ship." He stepped up on the railing and Robin looked at him in surprise, "I'll be back in nine!" He leapt off the side and drew his broadsword as he did. He slammed down on one foot and a knee next to the Mayor who looked at him in shock and asked if he was going to help. "Yes, I will stop the Heartless as long as it takes."

He sprinted towards the town and leapt over the bent gate into the town square. The fountain in the middle of town was broken and green acid was seeping all over the place, melting away at the sides of the square and even some of the Heartless. The ones that looked like ghosts were able to fly over the acid though, and they turned their attention on Usopp who held up his sword facing them. The man slashed across the first attackers and then had to block a slash of his own that pushed him backwards. "Ugh," he grunted as his back slammed into a building behind him.

The long-nosed hero turned his head a little and looked into the distance towards a hill that curled at the top like a witch's hat. Just past that he was led to believe Oogie's manor lay, and inside he knew his friends were doing their best to stop the madness going on around the world. A crack split right through the middle of the town square as Usopp was staring out though, snapping his attention back to the chaos around him. He rose up his sword as a wave of Heartless poured out of the crack in the town, and as he charged them he thought, _Sora, Luffy, win!_

* * *

"Oooh!" Oogie got hit by a bomb Sora smacked at him with his Keyblade and the sack-man fell off his raised platform. He hit the ground and one of his opponents shouted, 'Charge!' When he lifted up his head, his black eyes turned huge at the sight of seven people charging at him.

"You won't get away with this Oogie!" Jack yelled as he punched the bag man in the face. Sora slashed him twice in the back with his Keyblade, but when Oogie spun and tried hitting him back, a bolt of lightning came out of the sky and slammed straight into his chest.

"Thunder Lance!" Nami yelled as the lightning bolt collided with the top of her Clima Tact. Smoker looked over at the orange haired woman in surprise that she was more than just the navigator and could actually fight too. He turned back to the bag man and watched as Luffy and Goofy beat the crap out of Oogie, and he himself walked forward and punched his right hand forward.

"White Blow!" His fist broke off of his arm and a trail of smoke followed it as it flew across the room and slammed into Oogie Boogie's face. A cluster of lightning bolts dropped from the sky at the same time as Donald attacked, and Oogie was stumbling backwards when Smoker's fist wrapped around the front of his body. Smoker pulled his arm back in and in doing so dragged Oogie across the floor as well. He grabbed the sack man and lifted him up off the ground, "Where is it? Where's the Keyhole?"

"Ahh! Ah, stop! Alright you win," Oogie held up his hands in defeat, but Smoker saw the bag man grin at the last second. "Or not!" He was looking behind Smoker towards the doorway and the Marine turned around himself.

Sora, Nami, and Jack gasped at the sight in the doorway. Two Heartless creatures, the same powerful demon ones that Jafar summoned once he allowed the darkness to take over, stepped into the doorway with a woman in between them. Her skin was gray and she had a bruise on her right cheek. "Sally!" Jack yelled at the sight of her being held by the Heartless.

Smoker glared up at Oogie, but Oogie shook one of his pointy hands and said, "Uh uh uh, I wouldn't." Smoker spun back and saw one of the demons lift up its long thick sword and hold it in front of Sally's neck. Smoker growled, but he lowered the sack of bugs down to the ground and Oogie Boogie burst out laughing.

"Oogie," a dark, deep voice growled and made most of the room spin to it. Shock, Lock, and Barrel were hiding in the corner, but they curled up even more at the sight in the middle of the room and even started crying. Oogie turned and he stumbled backwards at the sight of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. His face was tilted down but being such a tall figure he was still looking down on Oogie Boogie. "I will not forgive you!" Jack's mouth was twisted into a horrific frown and he truly was the scariest thing in Halloween Town with the expression he was giving Oogie at the moment.

"Hold on there, Jack," Oogie spat out at him. "You wouldn't dare attack me when-"

"Thundara!" Sora held up his Keyblade and lightning bolts dropped down on the demon-Heartless in the back of the room. They took damage and dropped their swords, turning their entire demonic bodies into black wisps that spun around that side of the room. The Invisibles flew across the room and started circling around Sora who had no idea what was going on until they appeared again right on top of him and slammed him with powerful attacks.

Sora got tossed across the room and he rolled across the floor. Luffy and Smoker turned and each charged one of the Heartless each, while Nami, Donald, and Goofy took on the other Shadows that appeared around the room. Jack ran across the room though, charging straight at the white sack whose face took a terrified expression for a second before Jack slammed a kick up between his legs and knocked him in the air. Oogie grunted a high-pitched grunt and put his pointy hands down between his legs, but as he was falling his eyes went wide at the sight of Jack winding up a punch. Jack waited until Oogie was just about to fall on him, and then he slammed up his fist and pressed Boogie's face in so much his fist was visible on the bag man's other side.

Oogie flew backwards and tumbled across the floor until he came to a stop and groaned face-down. The others finished off their enemies as well, with Luffy taking some more time to take down the Invisible than Smoker. The room was empty of Heartless, and the heroes finally relaxed and cheered. Donald held up his wand, "Heal!" Sora's eyes opened up as green light shimmered over him and he hopped up to his feet.

"We did it?" Sora wondered. He looked around and saw the remaining enemies were down and he grinned. He marched across the room towards Oogie and called out, "Hey fatty!" The sack on the floor lifted up his head a little and looked at Sora. He had a rip on the side of his head and bugs were leaking out of him like blood, freaking out Nami who pressed herself against the opposite wall to make as much distance between them as possible. "Tell us where the Keyhole is!"

Oogie smirked at Sora and started laughing and saying he would never tell, but Sora's Keyblade started reacting to something in the same moment anyway. The Keyblade lifted up on its own and Sora looked up at the ceiling, seeing for the first time that the black on it was not a paint job, but was actual darkness spread out around the roof so that he could not see it. "Up there?" Sora wondered and looked up, the others all looking up as well.

Something shimmered in the middle of all that darkness and Sora grinned at the sight of a Keyhole shape. He rose up his Keyblade and the tip of it started to glow.

"We made it," Nami said in relief.

Jack walked over to Sally as Sora pointed his Keyblade up. She was in the doorway and Zero flew up next to her and started barking at Jack that he told him Sally was coming. "Why did you come here, Sally?" Jack asked her.

"Oh Jack," she began, and reached out her hand to touch his own. "I was just-"

Luffy picked up one of the bugs that crawled out of Oogie's sack and he looked at it confusedly before the bug bit him. "Ah!" Luffy spun to Nami and held up the bug, "I think this is Oogie!"

"Ew, get that away from-"

A beam of light shot off of Sora's Keyblade towards the ceiling. It shot up, and a cracking sound was heard while the beam was mid-flight. Sora's victorious grin flattened, and then dropped into a horrified look as the ceiling he shot his beam of light at started to crumble. The roof ripped off and behind the dark veil he was previously looking at, he could see the sky high above. It always seemed to be dark in Halloween Town, but the sky he saw now gave darkness a new meaning.

"No," Sora whispered, as his beam faded away for there was nothing for it to fly into. The Keyhole above his head got ripped apart with the rest of the roof, right up towards the massive sphere of darkness in the sky. The sky was black and full of purple wisps, but that sphere in the middle of it reminded Sora, Luffy, Nami, and even Smoker who saw it from afar, of the end of their own world. It had an orange core that was growing larger, showing it was not yet at the point that their world reached, but it was already there. The end of the world had begun. "We're too late," Sora whispered, tears coming out of the corners of his eyes.

"Huh?" Luffy turned and looked over at Sora. He dropped the bug in his hand and shifted his gaze to the sky. He heard Nami gasp behind him and his own eyes widened at the sight of the huge dark void above them. The sphere of darkness felt so evil, and he watched as the rest of the ceiling ripped apart and flew up into the sky. He could feel a tug on his own body and behind him, Nami grabbed onto anything around her to keep herself down.

"What- what do we do now?" Nami whispered. She spun her head and closed her eyes, _Usopp! Usopp please! _

Sora snapped his head up and he looked over towards the door where Sally was standing close to Jack who put an arm around her to make sure she stayed down as the gravitational pull was getting stronger. "Jack! We have a ship!"

Jack Skellington turned towards Sora, but a figure ran in between them and crossed his arms. "Sora! We can't!" Donald yelled.

"What do you mean 'we can't'? Sora shouted back. "They're all going to…" The boy shook his head and shouted, "The Going Merry is big enough! If we-" the wall on Sora's right cracked down the middle and a huge chunk of it ripped off. They all turned that way and could see past the wall, other branches of Oogie's manor lifting up in the air, along with chunks of earth behind it that were ripping right off of the planet.

"Whatever we do, we have to get away from here!" Nami yelled. She started running for the door to the manor's top floor and everyone else ran with her.

"Duuhahaha!" Oogie Boogie got up to his feet and laughed as the others ran out of the room. "Run Jack, run!" He called after them, cupping his hands to his mouth. "You won't make- huh?" Oogie looked down and saw his feet lifting off the floor. "Whoa, whoaaaa!"

Luffy looked over his shoulder as he ran and his eyes widened at the sight of Oogie flying up into the sky. He was the last one out of the top room and he followed Oogie's path into the sky as he kept spinning and spinning. The sack of bugs finally flew into the sphere of darkness in the sky and his mad screams cut off.

"Luffy let's go!" Sora called back at the pirate in a straw hat. Luffy spun back around right as the room behind him started crumbling completely. The group sprinted away from the top of the castle, though they hugged the wall as they ran down the manor to avoid being thrown up into the sky.

Sora looked to his left as he ran down the spiral path with the foundation of the manor on his right side. He looked at the crumbling edge of the path that got closer to them every second. He saw past the crumbling ledge and watched as branches and smaller buildings that Oogie had all over his manor ripped apart and up into the sky. Sora heard screams behind him and he spun around. Luffy stopped too as did Nami and Donald who were back here still. They saw three children running down the path behind them, and all three kids lifted up in the air as the ground beneath them tore off and shot up into the sky.

"Luffy, get them!" Nami shouted at him.

Luffy got ready to throw an arm up, but Donald yelled first, "Don't!" The others looked at the duck who clenched his eyes shut and started running down the path again. "This world is doomed! We have to run!"

Luffy looked at the duck, and he spun back and got ready to throw a fist into the sky. As he got ready though, the ground beneath his own feet cracked and his gaze snapped down to Nami who was only a few feet away from him. His eyes darted back and forth in that second, but the choice was not a hard one to make. He threw an arm out and it stretched around Nami right as the floor came out from beneath her. He already started running down the path again but he still stumbled as cracks appeared beneath his feet.

"Help ussss!" Barrel screamed. Everyone running down the path had to look up, and they all became horrified at the sight of the children vanishing into the darkness in the sky.

"It's all over," Nami said as Luffy ran down the path with her in his arm again. She held onto him tight and whispered, "Please, this time when we get sucked into the darkness, don't let go. I, I don't want to be alone out there. Not again."

"That's not going to happen," Luffy yelled. "We're going to save Halloween Town!"

He kept running and Sora spun left and screamed at the pirate going by him, "What Halloween Town?!" Luffy looked confused for a second, then Sora pointed out past him and into the distance and Luffy followed the point. He and Nami turned and their eyes popped open wide at the sight of dozens of buildings lifting over the horizon past the hill oddly shaped like a witch's hat. As they watched the buildings rise over it, they watched as the hill itself ripped off the ground, and a giant black hand shot out of the planet's crust instead. The fist that smashed the hill into the sky opened up and gripped the cracked ground near it, pulling out a massive body with a head covered in tentacles and two deep glowing yellow eyes.

This was not the only Darkside to appear in the distance. All over the world falling apart in front of them, giant Heartless were spawning and wreaking havoc. Nami, Luffy, and Sora were not the only ones to see Halloween Town falling apart in the distance. Sally and Jack stopped running down Oogie's manor's path and stared towards their homes as well. "Doctor," Sally whispered and brought her hands up to her mouth.

"The Mayor, and everyone else too," Jack said. He scratched the back of his head, "I guess, I don't have to worry about Halloween this year after all." He laughed darkly a couple of times, and then he heard a bark on his left and looked at the ghost dog to see what it wanted. Zero was looking up into the sky and Jack thought he knew why the dog was staring that way. The sky _was_ sucking up their entire world after all, but when Jack looked up he realized Zero barked for a different reason.

Smoker felt something above him and he snapped his head up. "Just in time," the Marine said, his voice grim despite the stroke of luck.

Luffy and Sora were sprinting down the path with each other and they caught up to Donald and Goofy who kept running as fast as they could. Everyone was panting, but the path was falling as fast as they were running, and if they slowed down for a second they would get taken away with it. "LUUU-FFFYYYY!" A voice screamed that sounded distant, yet getting closer the longer the person shouted Luffy's name for.

The four running, and the orange haired woman on Luffy's back, snapped their heads up in the sky and their eyes opened wide at the sight of a pirate ship sailing towards them. The Going Merry's sail was buffeting in the wind and the ship was wobbly as it looked like it was fighting the force of gravity trying to pull it into the darkness. Chopper yelled out of the cabin, "Usopp, Robin, hold on to something!" The two pirates grabbed on tighter to the railings they were already grabbing so as not to get thrown up into the dark sphere above. Chopper slammed the rudder forward and yelled, "Thrusters engaged!"

The Going Merry raced forward and Usopp leaned off the side of the ship. "Luffy! Throw me your hand!" The Merry was dipping low towards the manor, almost directly above Luffy and the others considering everything higher had already been ripped away into the darkness. Luffy, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were finding it hard to keep their footings, and the ground beneath them came apart as they stood there awaiting the approaching ship.

"Do it now Luffy!" Nami yelled at the rubberman carrying her.

"We're falling!" Donald shouted.

"Uhh, I don't think so," Goofy said. The duck who closed his eyes in panic as the floor broke opened them back up and yelped as the ground that collapsed rose up instead of falling down. They only dropped for a second too, before flying up in the air after the rest of the debris.

"Everyone hold on!" Luffy yelled, and he let go of Nami with the arm he was currently carrying her with. He threw that arm up towards the Merry, while at the same time stretching his other arm around to catch Donald, Goofy, Sora, and re-catch Nami all at once. Luffy's arm flew towards the ship, but he did not take the gravity into effect and his hand rose higher than the railing. Usopp kept one hand down on the rail and he stretched up as high as he could, and caught Luffy's hand with his free one. "Nice!" Luffy yelled. "Gum Gum, Rocket!" His arm un-stretched and he and all his passengers went flying towards the Going Merry.

They all tumbled on top of the ship, a few of them right on top of each other. Nami landed on top of Usopp who she immediately wrapped her arms around, and he wrapped her right back. "It's okay," he told her, "you made it."

Sora snapped up at the sound of Usopp saying that, and he ran back to the railing. He spun his head towards the cabin and yelled, "Chopper! Keep us headed down towards Oogie's manor! Jack's still down there!"

"Sora!" Donald quacked loudly. Sora spun and saw the duck standing only a foot away from him, a dejected but serious look on his face. "We can't take him with us! We can't take anyone!"

"Why not?!" Sora roared into the duck's face. Donald looked taken aback and Sora's lip was quivering while he shouted. "Why can so many of us come on the ship, but just a few more can't? Halloween Town's already gone!" Sora yelled, and everyone who landed on the deck looked over to the boy whose eyes were watering up. "The only ones left, are Jack, and Sally, and Zero!" Sora looked back over the ledge and he yelled, "See, even Smoker's still down-"

The man who at the Plume Plume Fruit was midway through flying up towards the ship, and he landed on the side of it before Sora finished yelling. The kid looked at Smoker with bags under his eyes and a distressed expression for a few seconds, before spinning back and looking towards the manor. His eyes darted around, and then he pointed an arm and yelled, "There!"

Chopper was still heading towards the manor mostly, though they were headed a little to the side so they would go past it. "Jack!" Sora yelled as they got close. The others on the deck all ran up to the railing and looked off to see Jack with an arm around Sally's shoulders, holding her close. They stood on the side of a platform sticking out of the lower part of Oogie's manor, and Zero floated on Jack's right side. All three of them looked up at the smiling boy who leaned out over the ledge as they dipped down closer to the platform. They were still moving fast thanks to the thrusters, but Sora reached out his hand and he yelled, "When we pass, grab on!"

"Sora!" Goofy yelled. The fact that it was Goofy yelling this time actually got Sora to glance back for a second. The dog knight was shaking his head and Goofy said in a sad voice, "We aren't supposed to meddle."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" Sora yelled back at him. "I came here to save them, then let me save them!" He looked back out and desperately reached his hand farther, almost falling off the ledge himself he was so far extended.

Luffy held up his arm and he said, "I got this." He got ready to throw his arm out because he could reach them no matter how close they got.

As they got near the three though, Sora's heart dropped at the sight of their faces. Jack gave Sora a small shake of his head, and the Pumpkin King called out, "It's okay Sora."

"We know you tried," Sally added. The resigned looks on their faces was too much to bear and Sora almost dove off the railing trying to reach for them as they were sailing by. Donald and Goofy grabbed a leg each to stop him, and his hands that he reached out for Jack and Sally passed in front of them by only a few feet. He curled in his fingers like it would give him just that extra amount of reach, but to no avail.

Sora's eyes turned to saucers and his head turned right as he watched the platform get behind him. Their entire world was falling apart in front of their eyes, and they could not do anything about it. Jack turned towards Sora and the others and he lifted up his right hand. Jack Skellington waved, "Goodbye everyone. Come back next Halloween." Zero barked in agreement and Sally hugged Jack, surprising the skeleton who looked down at her. "Sally," he said quietly.

Luffy could not watch them give up like that, and he threw his right hand out towards the platform. His arm stretched, and he curled in his hand just like Sora did before him, and missed the same as Sora did too. His hand curled in underneath the three who lifted off the ground suddenly and shot up into the sky. Everyone on the deck of the Merry could hear Chopper shouting about the Heartless below them, and the pull of the darkness which meant they had to leave immediately, but none of them looked back towards him. They all stared into the sky and watched as Jack, and Sally, and Zero, flew into the dark sphere above. The darkness got even more massive in that second and the orange core on the inside shrank down for a second, before expanding exponentially along with all the darkness around it.

"Go go go!" Nami shouted, snapping back to her senses as waves of darkness shot at them. The Going Merry sped up even more while aiming up and away from the growing sphere in the sky. They looked back and many of them moved towards the stern to watch as the darkness from the sky connected with the rising flames of black coming out of cracks all over the planet. Dark wisps covered everything that was not already black and the rest of the ground lost its gravity, crumbling and floating around a mass of debris in the middle of space.

They could not see the entire planet fall apart, but while they were still close enough they saw the ground beneath Oogie's manor collapse. It was like the planet was hollow and the crust was caving in. It moved like a wave across the planet, and the horror of it was only topped by the awe of the dark void taking the world's place. They got farther and farther away from the planet, Chopper firing lasers the whole time as Heartless ships were more densely packed here than anywhere they had been before. Explosions occurred all around them, but those looking off the stern only focused on one point. They looked into the distance and watched a star, a star blinking slower, and slower, until all at once, it went out.

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**A/N ;( ... Halloween Town, no more. Although it was sad, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Chapter 25 will be out later this week, so look forward to it! Leave me a review telling me what you thought, predictions about the story, or questions you may have.**

Vanessa Masters chapter 10 . Dec 31, 2016

Oh wow, Clayton gets corrupted!

And wise Nami, pulling Usopp over to the health balls :)

**Only going to put one response in here despite your many reviews (which I thank you for XD). Thanks for all the reviews, and I am glad you were really enjoying the story! Hope you enjoy the newest update! **

**-Thanks again to everyone who fav/followed/ and reviewed this story! 'Till next time!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor One Piece. **

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**BLP 25:**

"This is all _your_ fault!" Sora shoved his hands into Luffy's chest and pushed the pirate backwards.

"Me?" Luffy yelled back at him, more in surprise and confusion than anything else.

"Yeah you!" Sora yelled out.

"Hey Sora, calm down," Usopp began.

"No!" Sora shouted. He glared at Usopp and then snapped his attention right back to Luffy, "You haven't been taking this seriously! All the worlds are at stake and you're acting like a child! You can't just do whatever you want!"

"Sora, come on," Nami began. She looked down at the wooden floor and clenched her eyes shut as she thought about the world that collapsed behind them, and everyone they met while on it. "We tried-"

"Nami," Luffy scolded, quieting his navigator down. Luffy frowned at the spiky-haired boy standing on his ship and he stated, "I'm a pirate-"

"I don't care!" Sora yelled at him. The boy shook his head a few times despite the disapproving look Luffy was giving him. Sora snapped his gaze up and glared into Luffy's eyes, "I can't believe I actually considered joining your crew! I could never be a pirate. All you care about is yourself!"

Luffy had enough. He punched a fist forward. Luffy's fist went towards Sora's stomach, and then it slammed into a steel shaft that appeared in front of the kid. Luffy looked surprised that Sora saw him coming and blocked in time. Sora parried Luffy's fist away but he did skid back far enough to put some distance between them. He frowned deeply and slashed his Keyblade in front of him, "That's right Luffy, you're selfish! You don't care about anyone but yourself, I realize that now!"

"That's not true Sora!" Chopper yelled at the kid. "Stop saying that about Luffy!"

"It's the truth!" Sora shouted. "All this time, I've been going to other worlds trying to save them from the darkness. Leon told us that we have the keys to saving the worlds, and you never once looked like you cared about that!"

"That's because I don't," Luffy said casually. He kept his dark expression though and continued, "But I care about my crew, and I'm going to find them-"

"Do you really?" Sora asked, and the tone of his voice showed his was serious. Luffy's face took on a look of genuine surprise, and a little bit of hurt that Sora thought that way about him. Sora could see that his question hurt, but he did not feel bad at the moment, "Because Luffy, I've been with you since the worlds fell apart, and I don't think you care about your crew one bit."

"Sora that's enough," Usopp growled at the kid.

"That's not okay, or true," Nami began.

"Then why," Sora muttered. "Then why did we spend so long at the WMAT?!" Everyone closed their mouths, except Chopper who looked around confusedly, wondering what that was. "You know why?" Sora asked, and he took a step back towards Luffy. "It's because _you_ decided it's what _you_ wanted to do. You were looking for your crew because you wanted to, but as soon as something else came up that seemed like fun, you forgot all about getting to other worlds to look for our friends!"

"That's not fair Sora, you wanted to stay too," Nami said in a scolding tone.

"But I was willing to leave!" Sora yelled back at her. She looked taken aback by his loud tone but Sora continued in it, "We were only there because Luffy crashed the ship in the first place! We didn't find any of our friends! There were barely any Heartless there! The Heartless that showed up were all after us anyway! And we still spent more time on that world than any other, all because of _you_!" He shouted and pointed a finger back at Luffy, who now opened his eyes a little wider as he actually listened to what Sora said.

"We were stuck there for days while Donald fixed the ship, and then stayed for days after because you wanted to see the end of the tournament! Because you wanted to eat more meals, and if we did things your way, we would still be there, off fighting that Demon King or whatever, trying to avenge Krillin!" Sora was panting hard and he needed to take a breath for a second. "Almost an entire week," Sora muttered, his eyes shadowed over. "We wasted so much time, and now Halloween Town has paid the price."

"You don't know-" Usopp started.

"If we got here a few days earlier," Sora interrupted. "Do you really not think we could have stopped Oogie Boogie? We were so close, and he already had his plan under way. Jack said the Heartless weren't even attacking anyone a few days ago, and we could have been there a few days ago. We could have been there a week ago, because that was our original destination that day we crashed anyway." He turned from Usopp and looked back at Luffy who was no longer making eye contact with him. "An entire world, lost, because we were too late to save it."

The others on the ship looked down sadly, some with ashamed looks on their faces. Goofy frowned and bowed his head, more sad that Sora was acting this way than anything, but a part of him agreeing with Sora's speech.

"Awww," Donald quacked in a sad tone, bowing his head as well as he thought about Jack, and Zero, and Sally, and all the residents of Halloween Town they failed to save. Even the three mischievous kids, Shock, Lock, and Barrel, did not deserve to be lost to the darkness like that.

_Zoro told me we should have left Destiny Islands when we had the chance, but I wanted to see other worlds. I didn't think I would be responsible for saving them though! I don't, I didn't want to have to do that. Why'd the Keyblade choose me?_ Luffy looked down at his hands and clenched them in front of himself angrily. _I wanted to win the tournament, and see it to the end, so why do I… feel guilty? Those were things I wanted to do, that I enjoyed, I shouldn't regret them._ The pirate closed his eyes and frowned deeper as he shook his head a few times.

"You may have been the captain of your pirate ship, Luffy," Sora started up again. "But on this adventure, our priority has to be saving the worlds. If you can't make that your number one most important goal, then-"

"But it's not your goal either, right?" Nami suddenly stated. Sora was so into his speech that he was surprised Nami interrupted him, but when he thought about it he himself had to bow his head a little. "You may have been closing all those Keyholes, but you're just here looking for Kairi and Riku right?" Nami said. Usopp glanced at her nervously and Nami also felt strange bringing up the topic. She did not like making Sora feel sad, but the way he was acting right now, insulting Luffy, her captain, she couldn't take it.

Sora stayed quiet for quite a while. He stood there looking down and Nami thought she hit a chord with him, until he snapped his head up with a determined expression on his face. "Maybe at first," he began, and Nami looked surprised at the answer. "And I plan on saving Kairi, and getting Riku to stop using the darkness, but I have another goal now. Wonderland, the Coliseum, Bikini Bottom, the Deep Jungle, Agrabah, Earth, Neverland and London, and Traverse Town too. Every world I've been to has people on it, people I've made friends with, friends who are being threatened by the Heartless, who need me to save them." He looked around at all the passengers on the Going Merry, "They need _us_ to save them."

Smoker nodded at the boy and though he had been staying silent this whole time, he one hundred percent agreed with everything the kid was saying. Nami and Usopp looked at each other and frowned, but nodded their heads. Robin had a straight look on her face, her lips neither in a smile nor a frown, but she did nod slightly, wondering what happened that made her turn into such an important person for the survival of the worlds. Donald and Goofy looked at each other seriously and nodded their heads, before looking back in to Sora who opened his mouth again.

"Luffy," he started speaking directly to the pirate again and Luffy rose back up his gaze to look Sora in the eyes. "We have the keys to stopping Maleficent. We were given the Keyblades for a reason. Hook said that Riku was going to Ruins of Hollow Bastion, the castle where Maleficent resides." Sora rose up a hand and pointed towards the back of the Going Merry where the Gummi Ship was parked, "Now the navigation system has one world left on it that we have not visited yet, but we also have the navigation gummi we got from closing the Keyhole on Big Ben. I suggest we go visit this last world, see if Sanji's there, and then leave as soon as we can. Then we go back to Traverse Town and have Cid install the last navigation gummi, because I have a feeling we're close Luffy. The Heartless are getting stronger as fast as we are. If we don't stop Maleficent soon, she's going to win."

"We won't let that happen," Luffy muttered. Sora nodded at him and opened his mouth, but Luffy continued first, "But Sora, I don't like what you said before. About me not caring about my nakama," he growled. Sora looked a little nervous suddenly as it seemed like what he said before was more out of the anger he was in than what he really wanted to say to Luffy, his friend. "And how Halloween Town was all my fault."

Sora looked down and realized that may have been a little too harsh. "You're right, we were all there, it's on me too-"

"You want to be a hero don't you?" Luffy questioned, his voice grim.

Sora was confused by the question so he glanced next to him at Goofy, then looked down at his other side where Donald stood. Both of the animals shrugged at him since they were confused by the question as well. "Um, yeah, of course," Sora replied, like it was obvious. "I thought we already were really, but heroes wouldn't let worlds get destroyed right out from under them…"

"I don't want to be a hero," Luffy stated. Everyone there looked at the pirate captain in surprise. "Don't get me wrong, I like heroes, but I am a pirate," Luffy continued. Most people were still looking at him confusedly so he decided to explain. "Say there's a plate of meat, a hero would share the meat. I want all the meat!" He looked up to see if Sora understood what he was saying, but not a single person on the ship understood the words coming out of his mouth. "I want all the meat Sora! All of it!"

On the second repetition, Sora's eyes widened and he nodded his head once. Luffy was admitting that Sora was right, at least in part. Sora called him selfish, and Luffy was not denying that. "I wanted to do the tournament, and I want to save my nakama, and beat up Maleficent too!" Luffy's mouth curled up in a smile, and he yelled, "I want all of it!"

Oddly enough, the others felt like Luffy was actually making sense with this analogy, which kind of scared them. Sora smiled for a few seconds, but he frowned again and said, "We can't have all of it though. That's just being greedy," Luffy frowned at him again and Sora kept going, "We can try to do everything, like revisit all the worlds we've already been to. I want to see Tarzan, and Spongebob, Peter Pan, and Hercules again. We all do. But time's running out, and when we stop Maleficent the worlds will go back to normal and we won't be able to visit those worlds anymore."

Luffy's eyes went wide and Sora continued while looking him straight in the eyes, "You understand, right Luffy?" He waited for the pirate to respond and when he didn't, Sora took a step forward and called out, "We can't have it all! There's no time! When we beat Maleficent we won't be able to travel between worlds anymore. Everything will be back the way it should be. You can go back to being a pirate, I'll have my friends back, Smoker can return to the Marines, and Donald and Goofy will find the King! I know there are still things you want to do. I still want to go back to the Coliseum and enter in that Hades Cup that Chip and Dale keep telling us about. I want to visit Aladdin and Abu again, but instead of that I'm going to try and find Jasmine and get her back to them! Even though I know that if I manage to do that, then I myself won't be able to visit them ever again."

Luffy ground his teeth together and he was hating everything coming out of Sora's mouth. There was no denying the truth in his words though and that only made him more upset. "Let's get going," Luffy said. "We're in a hurry aren't we?" He turned and started walking away, his fists clenched and his mind full of different, negative thoughts. He wanted to do so much, so much that was now becoming clear to him that he would never be able to do. Instead he had a set goal that he did not choose for himself, that some weird weapon chose for him. _I never wanted this,_ he thought angrily. _I never wanted this responsibility. Why, why me?_

Sora turned his head to Donald and his expression was serious, and sad, and he spoke up, "Check the Gummi Ship. Let's get going to that next world."

Donald wanted to quack at him not to tell him what to do, but Sora turned away after saying it and walked away on his own. He still looked depressed and when the boy closed his eyes all he could see was Jack waving at him, before the world under the skeleton's feet came out from under him. He imagined Jack, and Sally, and Zero's faces as they fell up into the void before vanishing into darkness.

Sora rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and he lowered his arm to show a much more determined expression on his face. He stared off the side of the ship and clenched a fist in front of him, _Kairi, Riku, I'm on my way._ He imagined Riku disappearing into the dark portal with Kairi limp in his arms and his heart started racing even faster. _No matter what it takes, I'm going to save you. Both of you. And we're going to make it back to the islands someday. We just have to._

* * *

Hours passed on the Going Merry flying through space. Donald worked on fixing the Gummi Ship until he could finally turn on its engines without clouds of smoke billowing out of it. When the duck finished up, he walked around the oddly quiet deck of the ship.

Donald turned the corner and as he turned it a smaller animal creature was turning the other way. The two of them bumped into each other and both fell back on their butts. Donald shook around his head and then glared forward at the furry reindeer sitting in front of him. Chopper jumped to his feet fast, "Ah! Sorry Donald," Chopper apologized, still a little nervous around the duck who did not want him traveling with them.

Donald stood up as well and he tapped his right flipper on the ground in annoyance. Chopper thought the duck was going to start angrily quacking, but Donald spoke up in his normal high-pitched voice, "Why aren't any Heartless appearing?" The court magician had been wondering it from the first time he got on the ship. Captain Hook's ship was crawling with Heartless so he did not see why the Going Merry was not.

Chopper relaxed and smiled at the duck wearing blue clothes and a blue wizard's hat. "It was the King," Chopper replied, making Donald's eyes turn huge. "He cast magic protection over Merry to keep Heartless out."

"Whaaa?" Donald questioned in disbelief. "My magic's only good enough to cover the Gummi Ship! And I thought that was big," he quacked in annoyance as a feat he had previously bragged about to Sora suddenly became a lot less impressive in his eyes.

Chopper started sweating and he held up his hands. "Wow! Your magic can cover that whole ship? That's amazing too!"

Donald grinned and he crossed his arms. "That's right," he said, and he stuck out his chest. "I am the court magician after all."

Usopp stepped out of the cabin of the Merry and he glanced right to see the two animals in the middle of a conversation. He was about to walk over to them when he spotted someone else and turned his gaze to the bow of the ship. His eyebrows dipped in and he frowned at the sight of the man's back.

The long-nosed pirate started walking across the deck to the bow. He glanced up at the sail of the Going Merry and smiled nostalgically as he remembered painting Luffy's skull and crossbones on it so many years before. He looked back down more seriously though as he approached the front railing and the man with white hair crossing his arms and glaring out into the void of space. Lasers shot off the ship occasionally to clear their path or blow up Heartless ships, but it seemed like Sora or whoever was piloting did not need any help. Usopp stepped up to Smoker's back and he stood there silently for a moment. "You can feel me standing here, can't you?" Usopp finally asked, and considering Smoker did not flinch or act surprised at all that there was someone standing behind him, he figured he was correct.

Smoker's eyebrows lifted up and he turned his head a little. "What do you want?" He asked the muscular man behind him.

Usopp's teeth clenched as he stepped up so he was on Smoker's side. He looked out into the void and imagined himself in the square of Halloween Town. People were running from the Heartless and darkness all around them, but whenever he tried helping them he got stopped by Heartless that attacked him. He thought about how he had to use potions to keep himself going until it was time to leave, and how the Heartless were so strong that it took several combos just to take down a single Shadow. "The Heartless are getting stronger," Usopp stated, his voice quiet but loud enough for Smoker to hear him. "I need your help."

"My help?" Smoker asked, annoyed and confused at the same time.

Usopp turned and looked at the older man seriously. "I saw you hurt Luffy. He's made of rubber, but you punched him and he bruised." Smoker frowned deeper and turned away from Usopp. "Don't pretend like it was the darkness, and I know it had nothing to do with your Devil Fruit. There's this, energy, that you used to fight him, and I've seen you use it against the Heartless too. It works! If I could-"

"There's no chance," Smoker started to growl, interrupting Usopp. He stopped himself, but his message was clear. He knew the more muscular man who was also wearing a white toga knew what he meant too, so he turned and glared into his eyes. "You are a pirate. For me, a Marine, to teach you Haki- it's unthinkable."

Usopp became quiet for a few seconds, and then his own face got darker and he growled, "This 'Haki,' a rubberman isn't the only one who can get affected by it huh?" Smoker's eyes turned huge and Usopp narrowed his own even more at the reaction.

"That has nothing to do with it," Smoker snarled back. He saw Usopp opening his mouth to counter and he snapped first, "But yes, I am also against teaching pirates my weaknesses. Even if we are working towards the same goal right now, when this is over you don't really think Straw Hat is going to stop trying to be the King of the Pirates, do you?" Usopp closed his mouth as he had no response.

Smoker looked back out over the void and nodded, "You may say that you changed and became a hero, but I can see it in your eyes that if we return, you're going to stay with Straw Hat and become a pirate again."

Usopp looked out into the void as well, and his voice became softer though it kept the serious edge to it. "You just said 'if,'" Usopp started, confusing the Marine at first. "Which tells me" the long-nosed man continued, "that you understand we're fighting a losing battle." Usopp's fists clenched over the railing, "Then you also understand that we need to be as strong as possible when the next fight arises. Next time Maleficent appears," Usopp added, and both he and Smoker felt the shame of their last encounter with her in Agrabah. "Or Zoro," Usopp continued, and Smoker grimaced even more thinking about the WMAT, while Usopp thought about the scar across his torso.

Usopp darted his eyes to the side and asked, "Do you really think we can half-ass this and make it back?" Smoker's eyes shadowed and he clenched his fists hard. "Do you think it's going to be easy getting Tashigi back? So easy that I won't even need any Haki to be able to help you out?" Smoker's teeth clenched harder and a vein popped on his forehead. Usopp whispered, "There're less than a dozen of us, trying to stop entire armies of Heartless. We are fighting the literal embodiment of darkness. If there is any way for me to become stronger, I need to try it. So if you're going to force my hand," Smoker turned, expecting Usopp to be getting ready for a fight. Usopp knew he could not fight Smoker though, and the Marine's eyes went wide as he saw Usopp's head bowing. "Then I will beg you," Usopp said through clenched teeth. "If that is what it takes," he finished, and bowed even farther.

Smoker's clenched fists shook and his body trembled. Then, he stopped all at once. His hands opened up, and he grabbed a cigar with one hand and a lighter with his other. He lit the cigar in his mouth and took a puff, "Stand up."

Usopp rose his head and saw Smoker glaring at him. The Marine Captain nodded his head once at the look Usopp gave him and the long-nosed pirate grinned wide. "Let's start right now," Usopp said. "There's no telling how soon the next world will come up."

Smoker glowered at the tan-skinned younger man for a second, before sighing and starting off exactly as he remembered being taught. He could see Aokiji's face in his mind and imagined the Ice Man telling him all about the three types of Haki. Smoker looked over Usopp's head as he talked and looked back at the cabin. _Conqueror's... Straw Hat... Might leave that part out of the lesson._

Inside the cabin of the Going Merry, Robin stood behind the kitchen counter, going through the shelves looking for something. She pushed a large pot to the side and a smile lifted on her face. Robin reached in and grabbed a book that she had quickly stored there a day that seemed so long ago to her now. She was only reminded of it because of the destruction of Halloween Town, as once she saw that black sphere of darkness in the sky, everything that happened the day Destiny Islands fell came rushing back to her.

Robin thought about the screams of her fellow crewmates, and how she did not have time to go back to her room to store her book, so she quickly put it in a random cupboard before heading to the deck. She was reading the book on that fateful day to distract herself from the ominous message she received earlier in the day from a man in a black cloak. As she looked at the book in her hands, she felt shivers down her spine thinking about that day, that horrible day. So much of it after leaving the ship was blurry to her, but earlier in the day, she could remember every word that strange man said to her and Sora.

_"I've come to see the door to this world… This world has been connected. Tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed…"_ Robin's eyes suddenly widened and she lowered the book in her hands down to the counter in front of her. _Wait a second. That man, who- who was he?_ Robin got a bead of sweat on the side of her face and she wracked her mind over the stories her other comrades had talked about since she reunited with them, along with her own experiences. _Jafar did not know me when I first introduced myself to him, and Zoro, Zoro was not yet the villain he is now. Is Maleficent not our true enemy? _

Robin's face started sweating and her hands clenched on the side of the counter. _"One who knows nothing can understand nothing." _The twenty-eight year old woman's eyes opened wide, _What if, we still do not know what, or who, it is we are fighting? Maleficent, the Keyholes, what if they are not the true problem? What about, the door? He mentioned something being beyond the door, and I thought he meant the one in the cave. It's why I went there when the world was collapsing, but, but maybe that was just the door to that world like he said earlier. The door-_ Robin's eyes opened wide and she started sweating more. _The door! "It seemed that my opening the door has opened a path to interworld travel… I must know what this Keyblade is. A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door I have opened."_

She stepped around the corner of the counter looking deep in thought, not even noticing that she left her book behind. _Ansem's Report 9. It mentioned the "door" too. If this doorway can allow interworld travel, if it is what I believe it to be, then we still do not know anything! We don't, we don't __**understand**__ anything. _

Just as Robin was about to freak out, a door on the inside of the cabin opened up. She turned her head and looked at the young man walking into the kitchen with a deep frown on his face. "Hello, Luffy-san," she began, still a little shaken by what she was just thinking. She thought about bringing it up with him for a moment, but shook her head as he would not understand, nor did she think he would care to. "Why the troubled face?"

"Food," Luffy moaned.

Someone else came walking in behind him and she bonked him lightly on the head as she walked by. "I told you, the Merry is all out. We'll stock up on more at the next world."

"You said that last time," Luffy groaned.

"Well, before I could go buy some," Nami began, but she fell silent. There was no need to finish the sentence anyway and both of them looked down. Nami shifted her gaze after a second and looked at the counter. "What's this?" She questioned, and reached over to grab the book on it. "The Rainbow Mist?" Nami wondered.

"That would be mine," Robin said to the younger woman who turned back to her. Nami somewhat remembered seeing Robin reading something of the sort on the ship before and she nodded, handing the story to the woman in front of her. "Would you like to read it Nami-san?"

"Maybe some other time," Nami replied. Her stomach rumbled and she glanced over at her captain who frowned disappointedly some more at her. "What am I going to do about it?!" She yelled at him, and he just pouted and sat down at the counter with his chin in his hands.

The door to the cabin opened up and the three of them glanced over at the doorway. The boy who walked in looked around at them, and Sora made eye contact with Luffy for a second. He could not hold his gaze there for long though and he turned his head to the side. "Goofy says we'll be at the next world soon," Sora said. He turned fully around and walked out of the cabin, letting the door close behind him.

Nami sighed and she tilted her head to the side. "It's going to be awkward now isn't it?" She mumbled, and glanced back at her captain to see what he thought. Luffy was not paying attention to her though, staring across the counter instead at the opposite wall with a distant look in his eyes. "Aahhh," Nami sighed exhaustedly. _This needs to end soon._ As soon as she thought it she shivered, because for some reason she felt that it really was going to end soon, and that feeling did not give her any relief.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion**

"I don't get it," Riku snapped at the evil woman in front of him. "You said I could have Kairi."

"And there she is," Maleficent replied, motioning towards the still girl lying on the floor near them. The two of them stood in front of the large glowing heart covered in sparking electricity to show it was still not working. Maleficent was not in the mood for Riku's whining as she stared at the Keyhole that should have been working by now.

"Her heart," Riku growled. "I may have her body, but that's not her if she does not have her heart."

Maleficent hummed to herself. "You are indeed correct," she said, turning from the portal and slamming her staff down. "The other Princesses of Heart are all here, and now with Kairi here as well, the Keyhole should be ours. However," she turned her head and glared back at the sparking heart of different colors. The top left of the heart was red, the bottom portion was dark blue, and the top right was green, but there were lightning bolts sparking out of each section and forming a mass of electricity in the middle that kept the Keyhole from becoming complete.

Riku's green eyes lit up as he spun back to Kairi. "Maybe the reason your door won't open, is that Kairi doesn't have her heart," he suggested. The green-faced woman frowned and Riku glared at her, "Which means, getting Kairi's heart back is our top priority now. Not capturing more of those Keyholes," he said the last part in disgust, and had to turn away as he finished.

Maleficent saw him turn and she herself grinned. She walked towards the silver haired boy and spoke, "Is something troubling you?" Riku did not respond and she put a hand on his shoulder, "You can tell me. Remember, I am here if ever you need help."

He brushed her hand off and stepped back, "Yeah, whatever." He turned away and under his breath muttered, "What was the point of taking that Keyhole? All you did was throw a world into darkness." Riku turned back to her and glared in her eyes, "Are you just insane? Did you get a kick out of it?"

"Hahaha!" Maleficent cackled and held her arms out to the sides. "You caught me," she said in a sarcastic, condescending tone. "Come now Riku, you must know me better than that."

Riku frowned as that did not seem like Maleficent's way of doing things. "Then," Riku started, and an idea came to his mind. To test the idea, he held out his right hand, and to his surprise, ten Shadows emerged out of black holes on the floor simultaneously. Even Maleficent stared at the Heartless in surprise, _He is so powerful. Just testing his strength he can create so many!_ "So it's true," Riku muttered out loud. "The more worlds that fall to the darkness, the more powerful it becomes."

"Very good my boy," Maleficent responded. "And with those newfound powers of yours, soon you will be able to reclaim Kairi's heart, and we will complete the Keyhole."

"Sure," Riku said, not really caring about that last part as much as the saving Kairi's heart bit. Riku pulled out his sword, a long curved blade with a black hilt and a sharp red blade edge. "But-" he began, but stopped himself before he continued. Maleficent looked at him, awaiting the rest of his sentence, and Riku finally blurted it out. "What was the point of Pinocchio?"

Maleficent's eyebrows rose. The teen had never mentioned it when she gave him the mission, as his reward was getting Kairi back. Even after the deed was done, he did not question the orders as Maleficent fulfilled her part of the deal and he now had Kairi, as incomplete as she was. "Did you start to care for that thing? It was a puppet, no more-"

"If he was just a puppet, why was he so important to you?" Riku snapped. The fact that he used the pronoun 'he' did not go unnoticed by the witch in front of him. "When I got Kairi back, I figured maybe the heart you got from a puppet could, I don't know, restore hers! But, it just feels like it had no purpose now."

"Put the puppet's heart in that girl's body?" Maleficent asked. "Ridiculous. You do not yet understand the intricacies of the heart." Maleficent paused and looked across the hall, past the steps and all the princesses in their tubes where they currently rested. "Perhaps," she continued, her mouth curling into a smirk, "our mutual friend can explain to you what you want to know."

Riku looked at her oddly before turning around and looking across the hall himself. He spotted a man in a black cloak on the other end, standing there with his back against the wall like he had been there the whole time. Riku walked closer to the edge, and his eyes widened at the sight of the green haired man standing there. Without a glance back at Maleficent, he ran forwards and jumped down from the top section all the way to the floor below.

"What are you doing here?" Riku called out as he approached. He slowed down in front of the green haired man, the swordsman with one black hilt at his side, whose body was bigger than the last time Riku saw him, even if it was hidden underneath his cloak. "Zoro?" Riku questioned.

Zoro glared down at the kid but Riku did not flinch at his gaze. Zoro suddenly imagined himself somewhere distant, somewhere he had long since forgotten about. He saw himself on that beach, facing off against this kid who picked up a wooden sword and tried to fight him, who fought better than Zoro remembered himself being at the boy's age. And on that beach, other blurry images started to form in his mind, and Zoro wiped the mental image away as he refocused on the kid in front of him.

"Riku," Zoro said. "You look, the same," he sounded almost, annoyed, and Riku looked at the man in confusion.

"Yeah," the boy replied slowly. He looked Zoro up and down, "You don't though." Riku thought for a second about asking him why he looked so much older, but he decided against it and questioned instead, "Do you know what makes a heart tick?" Zoro looked down into the boy's green eyes and could see Riku was being completely serious. "It's Kairi," Riku continued, "her heart is, well, it's not working. Maleficent says it's missing, but-"

"So the Heartless got to her too," Zoro muttered, mainly to himself.

Riku heard him though, and his eyebrows lifted up. "'Too?' What do you mean?"

Zoro frowned, but he did not have anything better to do at the moment and he turned around. Riku did not know where he was going, but it seemed like the swordsman wanted him to follow along so he did. They walked out of the room and across another dark hall until they reached one of the inner hallways of the castle. There was a large hollow area in the middle of the hall with electric bars working as railings on the sides of the platforms.

The two of them navigated the maze of a castle to a much lower floor. While they walked down a flight of stairs towards a circular area that had a fountain in it and many marble pillars near the walls, Riku finally spoke up, "Where are we going? It feels like we're about to leave the castle."

Zoro did not answer and just kept walking. "Hey!" Riku shouted, and came to a full stop. "Answer me!" Zoro took another step towards the door on the other side of the stairs, then stopped completely as he felt something behind him.

"There is a woman here who has also lost her heart," Zoro said calmly. The boy holding up a black and red sword lowered it a little while staring at Zoro's back. Suddenly, Riku's body froze and his hair stuck up on the back of his neck. The reason, of course, was the voice speaking directly behind him. "A sword is not a toy. Raise it towards me again, and you will never raise it again."

Zoro's image disappeared in front of Riku and the young teen gulped at how fast the older swordsman moved. Zoro walked past him and finished stepping down the stairs again. He walked halfway across the room to where he was when he vanished before glancing back, and Riku jumped as he remembered what he was doing. He jogged across the room to catch up with Zoro and he regained his nerves as he followed behind the man. _This is how strong he became after accepting the power of darkness. Maleficent was right, only by using the darkness will I have a chance at saving Kairi. Sorry Sora, you can run around playing hero if you like, I know what I need to do._

Back up at the top of Hollow Bastion, Maleficent had a crystal ball sitting on top of a platform floating in front of her. The crystal was foggy, but she rubbed her hands on it and it became clearer. "What is it?" Maleficent asked. "Have you found your world's Keyhole?"

"Not yet," the higher-pitched voice on the other side replied. Her voice was scratchy and she spoke like she was shrieking all the time. "But the plan is all set! I can't believe that fool Oogie Boogie allowed his world to collapse!"

"You must be careful," Maleficent said. "The Keyhole's power is beyond that of the darkness we already utilize. Be careful of its hold, and if it becomes too strong, retreat to Hollow Bastion."

"HAHAHAHA! Be careful? If I get the Keyhole, that means I'll already have my hands on that damn Triton's trident. And once I get that, _no one, _will be able to stop me! Hahahahaaa!"

The crystal ball started to get foggy again, but it stopped and the frowning witch with green skin looked down at it confused. She thought the octopus-woman talking to her would end with that passive aggressive remark, but there seemed to be more on Ursula's mind. "Those brats with the Keyblades, my scouts tell me they're on their way here," she began.

"They were too late to save Halloween Town," Maleficent remarked. "Soon, Atlantica will fall to the same fate." This time, Maleficent allowed the crystal ball to lose focus and cut the connection between their worlds. She smirked as she imagined the flustered, furious look on Ursula's face at the moment considering the veiled insult she made at the end there.

Maleficent turned away from her crystal ball and looked around the room at the six princesses lined up on her walls. She turned back and stared up at the Keyhole that was one step away from being completed. Then, her gaze shifted down and her grin lowered at the auburn haired girl lying on her back, motionless. _All my plans are coming to fruition, but you are holding them back. Why? Why does it all come down to you? What makes you so special?_ Maleficent snarled and her fists clenched hard, so hard she could hear creaking in the staff in her right hand. She relaxed after a moment though, and her grin returned to her. _No matter though. Soon, very soon, I will finish the Keyhole. It is only a matter of time. And the only ones who could possibly stop me, are about to meet their fates at the bottom of the ocean._

* * *

**A/N Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The stakes have been raised as a world sinks into darkness just like Destiny Islands did. The crew may be getting larger, but the darkness is getting stronger so their larger numbers will not mean as much. Riku makes it back to Hollow Bastion with Kairi, but neither him nor Maleficent are able to get her heart back. It seems like that's everyone's goal now, getting Kairi her heart. Sora wants to for obvious reasons, just like Riku, while Maleficent wants Kairi's heart so that she can complete the Keyhole. The Straw Hats are almost all reunited now, and Tashigi is not far from Smoker's grasp. Things are quickly escalating to a climax, but Robin notices something as she thinks back on their journey so far. There may be one other player in the game who no one is accounting for, and just the thought of him gives Robin the chills! Well, I hope I built up some suspense for the upcoming chapters! Thanks for reading! 'Till next time!**

avatoa chapter 24 . 8h ago

Dude, your ass is so grass right now, you hear me?! You basically destroyed one of my most favorite Disney Worlds! I am so ticked right now!

**;) Sorry about that, but hopefully the heroes will be able to put things right by the end of the story. Without some consequences, I could see Luffy wanting to fly all over space and going to every world imaginable. Things have finally gotten serious here, and they're going to be rushing to Hollow Bastion now to prevent another Halloween Town type of disaster. Thanks for the review! (Even if my ass is grass in it)**


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